Young Blood
by PinkPlasticPrincess
Summary: Hera Preston's earliest memories begin very unusually. After a tragic event in 2015, the girl doesn't think her life can get any stranger. The year 2022, which brings forth a new disease at the hands of Delphi, proves her wrong. This story follows teenagers in their struggle for life in the traumaverse.
1. Prologue

For ages, medicine has adapted to counteract the forces threatening us presently. In the future where cancer and AIDS are as frivolous as gallstones or appendicitis, doctors have grown arrogant. There exists a group of people who work against medicine to restore mankind's right to die.

Cancer and AIDS are frivolous because there exist things far worse.

There exist forces that even nature, with all her might, could not have pulled off on her own.

There exist diseases that the average surgeon could not hope to vanquish, that may even require a touch from the god of medicine himself.

Lucky for man there's an institution in a certain city that is buzzing with individuals with the ability to thwart these new threats to humanity.

You never know; mankind's most greatest ally (or even threat) may be under our very noses.


	2. Chapter 1, Part 1

_"This... is mankind's first sin. Man created swords to kill, and was in turn killed by swords. Don't you see? Man has always sought ways to achieve death." -Adam_

 _"That's not true! We created many other things in order to live!" -Derek Stiles_

 _"Even still, the swords we created could also be used to create justice." -Naomi Kimishima_

 _ **MANKIND'S FIRST GUILT**_

I can't remember much of anything from the first half or so of my life.

Most people just brush this off as simple childhood amnesia, but I don't think that's what it is.

The earliest memories most people have are random. They remember bits and pieces of being at a birthday party, or being at the beach with their family. Maybe looking up at their mother.

But my earliest memory isn't like that.

It's too.. Convenient. Too planned. It's not random at all. It's not bits and pieces, either. I remember most of it clearly.

I remember waking up to my mother. I wouldn't have even known she was my mother if it weren't for the fact that she saw the way I was looking at her and said "What's wrong? It's just me, your mom." She had been watching over me while I slept on the couch. She must have been worried about me.

Maybe I had been ill, because she asked me how I felt. I felt hot. I shifted a bit on the couch and realized that I was sticky and also wet.

She asked me if I had sweat in my sleep, and before I could answer, she laughed. "I'm surprised! You usually complain about being cold."

I thought silently for awhile before I managed to make my body speak. My voice was hoarse and I was surprised to even hear the sound of my own voice. "I do?"

"Yes!" She nodded, hot pink hair bouncing a bit. Most of it was worn loose but about halfway down it was tied into a ponytail that draped over her right shoulder. I wanted to know if the color was natural or if it was dyed. Mom leaned forward with her hands folded in her lap as she tried to regain my attention. "Don't you remember?"

" _No."_ I didn't remember anything like that. I couldn't remember anything at all.

She leaned forward and patted my hair. "That's okay if you don't remember anything! I'll reteach you everything you need to know." She was very casual about this. She didn't seem too concerned that her child couldn't remember anything, implying that she suspected this might happen. What had happened to me prior to waking up to her?

Mom took my much smaller hands in hers and helped me to sit up. "Your full name is Hera Kyle Preston and you are my only child. For a long time it's been just the two of us, but that's changing."

"We've just moved to Hawaii," She told me. "Where we'll be living our lives with my new husband and his daughter. Isn't that exciting, Hera? Now you'll have a father and someone to play with!"

Mom stood and tried to yank me up with her even though my body wasn't ready. I got up off the couch with her, anyways.

"Yvonne is a few years older than you but I think you'll get along well." She said, referring to my new step-sister.

I furrowed my brow, trying to force my body to form words once again. "H...How old.. Am I?"

Mom smiled big but was clearly hesitating. "Ah.. Y-You're five, Hera."

I peered around mom at a full-length mirror hanging on the wall behind her. Pink and blue filled up the mirror and blocked out everything else.

I let go of mom's hands and tried to run to the mirror as best I could, but it was hard with my left leg asleep. My movements were ungraceful and jerky, and I had to catch myself on the mirror when I reached it. I tried to wipe away my smudgy handprints but to no avail.

When I saw my reflection in full, I did a double take. My hair was almost entirely a brandeis shade of blue with hot magenta chunks. The magenta chunks were in peculiar shapes, none of them exactly like the other. Chunks is a poor way to describe them. They were more like blobs. I had at least one large blob on the two enormous bangs framing my face, and a smaller blob on the bangs coming from my hairline. My hair's length was somewhere in between chin and shoulder length.

I didn't even notice mom come up behind me and I jumped a bit when she put her hand on my shoulder. "Do you like it?"

I didn't answer.

"This is what you asked for before we left." She told me cheerfully. "You and I decided we would start all over in Hawaii. This one's my favorite!" She pointed to a blob of pink on the crown of my head that was shaped entirely different from the others. It was thick and in a spiral shape, but only curled inside of itself a little.

It was then that I realized all of my hair was dyed. I have no idea how mom found someone skilled enough to do any of this to my hair, but she made sure to find the best stylist she could in Hawaii to up-keep my look. Usually all that I had done was touch-ups in problem areas, but occasionally my entire head had to be recolored because too much color was faded for a simple touch-up to suffice.

Mom started running her longer fingers through my hair. Affectionately at first, but then with the intent of combing it out. She split my hair down the middle into two sections and then began to braid my hair tight and close to my scalp. She did this twice, with each braid going down the back and ending in a short pigtail low on my head.

"There!" She announced proudly, making fists on her hips. "That should keep you cool enough."

Mom's hair was dyed, too. She was a natural blonde but decided to go with a new look for Hawaii like I supposedly did. I quickly learned, though, that "fun" colors such as pink were a natural pigment for hair and eyes just about anywhere I went.

Naturally, my eyes were a palatinate blue. Mom said that I required glasses to see, but before we left to Hawaii we had gotten me prescription, colored contacts to go with my new look.

They were the same yellow as the lemon syrup used on snow cones throughout Hawaii. Mom thought they went well with my hair and so did I. She would say that I contained all of the primary colors with the magenta substituting for red.

Mom didn't have colored contacts or glasses, and her eyes went beautifully with her hair. They were somewhere between yellow and gold, an amber sort of color. Sometimes her eyes leaned more towards gold and other times more towards yellow.

Dad loved her eyes.

I had to be reintroduced to dad and Yvonne since I never regained my memory of anything pre-Hawaii. I was never given a proper explanation for what happened to me or why I had no memories, either.

It never fully felt like my step-father was my dad, but that's what he was, and he was the only one I ever knew. I didn't have memories of my biological father and mom acted like he didn't exist.

Dad was kind and eager to have me as his new daughter, and I wanted to know what it was like to have a father, so I did my best to try and bond with him during the time we had together.

Mom spent a lot of time with dad like a lovey-dovey partner. She and I spent lots of one-on-one time together, too "Just like we used to", as she said. But most of my time was spent with Yvonne.

Mom was dead wrong thinking we'd get along well. Yvonne was five years my senior at ten years old and she made it obvious that she did not like me. She would antagonize me a lot but I was not free of guilt, either. She was civil and respectful towards mom, but refused to refer to her by anything other than her first name because she didn't want to feel like she was replacing her "real" mom, her late mother. As time went by, Yvonne and I started to get along better, and mom and I felt more like family to her.

Yvonne had the same jet black hair as dad. When she was ten, she wore it up in two buns that were covered tightly with white fabric like a rumāl worn on the topknots of Sikh people. She had a long, black strand of hair coming down on either side of her face that extended well past her shoulders. By the time she was twelve, she was wearing her hair in thin, black pigtails.

The general consensus was that Yvonne would grow up to be a beautiful woman like her late mother. Years later, that would show to be true.

It was August by the time we were fully moved in. I wanted to explore the jungle-like outdoors but Hawaii was at its hottest and most of the time, Yvonne wanted to cool off in the ocean.

Mom and dad wouldn't even let us step outside without sunscreen, and on days where swimming was involved it would have to be reapplied regularly. Mom carried a lotion and spray sunscreen on her in hopes that at least one of them would appeal to us, but Yvonne and I hated them both.

Just about every time we went to the beach in August, mom would have to call out for me because she couldn't see me. There would be a loud rustling sound nearby and next thing she knew I was coming out from the flora. It was the first thing I would do when we got to the beach.

Vegetation with a canopy provided plenty of shade, albeit humid. I would look up and around at the greens and reds surrounding me. The flowers were usually on the outside of these little forests but sometimes there would be blossoms on the inside. I was disappointed to learn that hibiscus flowers did not have a scent, but made it my mission to find beautiful ones to go in mom's hair.

Mom appreciated my token but reminded me that I wasn't the only one picking flowers on the island, and that they die soon after. I started leaving them be and admiring them from afar, and quickly discovered something more interesting.

When I first came out of the greenery with a lizard, mom jumped and shrieked before holding onto dad and laughing. She asked how I managed to catch one, and dad answered for me, saying you have to be stealthy.

I told her I would study the anoles quietly and learn where they liked to congregate as that upped my chances of landing one when I moved in, since you have to be quick to grab one and that usually means sacrificing accuracy.

When Yvonne heard this, she immediately leaped out of the ocean and ran towards the flora to catch one herself. My sister wasn't one for patience and would hunt the same meeting place too frequently without waiting in between, causing the anoles the relocate to new plants.

When she finally had an opening, she accidentally squeezed the anole. She screamed from the small forest, crying that she had severed the anole's tail. Dad ran to her at once but reassured her that the anole detached its own tail because it was frightened, not because Yvonne had severely harmed it.

We weren't allowed to catch the anoles anymore.

By the time I would finish touching and caressing the foliage to join Yvonne in the ocean, she wouldn't even be swimming anymore. Instead, I often found her perched on a rock gazing into a small tidepool.

I would watch with her for a little bit before telling her to swim with me.

"I already swam." She would say.

"Yeah but not with me!" I would say back.

Yvonne would say that swimming above the water isn't nearly as fun as swimming under, since you can see the beautiful landscape below. She reminded me that since I didn't know how to swim, I was stuck at the surface in a life ring and couldn't swim under the water with her.

"So show me." I told her.

Yvonne didn't want to help and insisted she wouldn't be any good at teaching me how to swim. She was right. I couldn't understand what she would try to convey to me and that made her frustrated. Every time she tried to teach me, it ended with me crying.

With mom and dad's help I learned the bare minimum of swimming. Underwater swimming was my strongest and I was allowed to snorkel with Yvonne as long as I kept close to her at all times and wore flippers, since my swimming was stronger with them on. Above water I could manage a weak doggie-paddle and a form of treading that looked more like drowning in a circular motion. My flippers aided above-water swimming, too. My movements could be few in between and I wouldn't have to struggle desperately to stay above the water.

But there aren't any flippers in the world that would save us from what hit when I was seven.

I will never forget August 3rd of 2015. That day, the life I had come to know for only two shorts years was ripped away from me.

With mom and dad's help I learned the bare minimum of swimming. Underwater swimming was my strongest and I was allowed to snorkel with Yvonne as long as I kept close to her at all times and wore flippers, since my swimming was stronger with them on. Above water I could manage a weak doggie-paddle and a form of treading that looked more like drowning in a circular motion. My flippers aided above-water swimming, too. My movements could be few in between and I wouldn't have to struggle desperately to stay above the water.

But there aren't any flippers in the world that would save us from what hit when I was seven.

I will never forget August 3rd of 2015. That day, the life I had come to know for only two shorts years was ripped away from me.

By 2015, Yvonne and I were twelve and seven. Yvonne would wear her hair in those thin pigtails that would be even thinner when wet. My hair went to my shoulder blades now, and mom would regularly put it up in a ponytail and braid it for me. I was still getting regular color maintenance. Mom was, too, but less so.

August 3rd had started out like any other summer day in Hawaii. Mom was reclining in a beach chair, sprawled out a bit to tan as much skin as possible under the sun. Dad was somewhat less relaxed, making jerky and frustrated movements as he tried to get his iPad at an angle where the screen was bright enough to read.

"Why don't you just bring your book?" Mom had asked him before we left the house that day.

"Because I'll never get all the sand out." He told her.

"Yeah but you can't plug it in and you might get sand in the charging port." Yvonne pointed out to him.

Dad assured Yvonne that his iPad was fully charged and that he had put a protective tape barrier over any ports on the device to keep sand out.

Mom slowly turned her head towards dad on the beach as she watched him hunch over the screen and hold his hand to his forehead like the bill of a hat.

"Why don't you set up the umbrella so you have enough shade to read?" Mom asked him.

"Because you want to tan," He began. "I would have to move away so that the umbrella doesn't block your rays. And then I wouldn't be close to you anymore."

Mom and dad were set up on the dry, powdered sand. They preferred it up there because the sand was warmer, prettier, and less messy than the wet sand that the waves reached.

We had left for the beach at maybe seven in the morning before it got too unbearably hot and before the beach was swarming with tourists and locals alike. I was still tired, and somewhat cold. Yvonne was down in the water, whereas I was curled up a foot or two in front of our parents trying to absorb the warmth of the powdery sand.

I had learned two years prior that if you are going to lay your face directly on the sand, it's better to rest the side of your face as opposed to full-face down. Other than getting the grainy material in every facial orifice, you might inhale some, too.

I started out curled up on my side but as the beach grew warmer and I grew uncomfortable, I flopped over onto my back with my limbs spread.

I heard mom shifting but didn't pay much attention until I heard her voice rather close to me. "Hera. You've been catnapping for awhile. You should play in the water with your sister before the beach gets busy."

I heard dad shift a little, and then say "We should probably put more sunscreen on them."

"I think you're right!" Mom responded cheerfully, and I groaned. I sat up and shook some sand off myself to get ready for being lathered.

Dad got up from his chair and held his hand to the side of his mouth. "Yvonne!" He hollered. "Come back so I can put more sunscreen on you!"

My sister immediately turned her head in dad's direction, and began swimming towards the shore and the shallower water where she could stand.

Dad watched her for a minute before gazing out further past the general swimming area. He squinted his eyes and scrunched up his face, leaning forward a bit. I looked, too, but I didn't know what it was he was looking at so intensely.

"Honey," Mom lifted her head at the sound of his voice. "What do you think that is out there?"

Mom took off her sunglasses and squinted, too. "What's what?"

"At the edge of the horizon," He extended his arm and pointed with his index finger. "That mass out there."

Yvonne had run up to dad now, and gazed out behind herself at the horizon.

Mom's eyes got wide and she lurched back in surprise. "I didn't know what you were talking about because it's so long.. It looks like it's just a normal part of the scenery out there.. But it isn't. That's a wave.."

I didn't understand what the big deal was. "There's always waves." I reminded my parents. "And sometimes, we see bigger ones." And we would marvel at them, just like how we would marvel at the water spouts that funneled down from the clouds to graze the ocean once in a blue moon.

"This is an _especially_ big wave, Hera." Dad tried to convey to me, and it concerned me that there was fear in his voice. I hadn't actually been scared until I picked up that dad, who's supposed to be strong and not scared of anything, was afraid.

I desperately turned to my mother for reassurance that there was nothing to worry about, but when I read her expression I was only partially reassured. Mom's gold eyes were big with fear, but also an eager curiosity. She marveled at the horizon with even more appreciation than we would marvel at the ocean's other spectacles with.

I broke my gaze from mom and looked back out at the ocean. It felt like the wave had gotten closer, and it didn't look like a stationary part of the horizon anymore. There was motion to it. The water to the front of the wave was rolling, tossing and turning.

"This is weird," Yvonne spat, her fear of this unfamiliar phenomenon mixing with frustration and anger. "I don't want to be here anymore. I want to go home."

Dad hurriedly wrapped his iPad back up in its case and started on folding up his beach chair. There was nothing calm about his actions and in his hurry to pack up and leave, he fumbled with the chair.

"God _dammit!"_ He barked, hitting the uncooperative chair against the sand a bit as he tried to get it to close.

Mom turned her body towards her beach bag while still keeps her gaze locked on the approaching wave. She also fumbled as she tried to pack up, feeling around blindly for anything that still needed to go into the bag.

But unlike dad, mom was slow and calm. She was in no hurry to leave even though dad clearly was, and this made him angrier.

"Go to the car, Hera!" Dad snapped while he finished packing up.

I was startled by his sudden outburst, and only hesitated momentarily before turning and running in the direction of the beach parking lot. I stopped maybe halfway and turned around to see how close behind myself mom and dad were.

Mom had barely left our original spot. Her body was turned in my direction and it look like she froze mid step to gaze over her shoulder at the approaching wave. She had this weird fascination with it that at the time, I didn't understand.

"Lia!" Dad snapped, immediately breaking mom from her train of thought.

When I approached the SUV, I stood on my tippy toes and tugged on my door's handle to find that it was locked. I expected that Yvonne had locked it after getting in, so I banged on my door with an open palm to get her attention.

"I'm right here, moron!" Yvonne snapped, walking around from the other side of the car.

"Yvonne," I said softly in attempts to soothe her irritation. "Why do you wanna go home so bad?"

"I don't necessarily wanna go _home,_ " She emphasized. "I just don't want to be _here._ "

"But.. But _why?_ " I begged to know, turning the palms of my hands up. "Why are you and daddy so scared of that wave?"

And why is mom so fascinated by it?

"You mean you can't feel it?" Yvonne crossed her arms as she gazed down at me. "Well.. I guess that would make sense." She cupped her chin a bit. "..That you don't understand why I want to leave so bad."

"Feel _what?_ " I strained, curling my small hands into fists as I gazed up at my big sister.

"The ominous vibe that the wave gives off." Yvonne said plainly.

I furrowed my brow in distress. "W-What does that mean? That word sounds so scary." I told her, referring to "ominous."

"Well, _good._ " Yvonne said bluntly. "That's essentially what the word means. A vibe is just a feeling, an intangible sensation. But ominous means you think something bad is going to happen."

I heard the trunk of the SUV slam, followed by the crunch of gravel as dad came up behind me and scared me half to death. "What are you two still doing?!"

I stiffened up in a jerky fashion as I turned around to gaze up at him. When did he and mom get here? While Yvonne and I were talking was the most simple explanation, we were too caught in our discussion to notice.

Dad huffed irritably and flicked his wrist at Yvonne and I to step back as he opened the door to the SUV, and lifted me up and in so that I wouldn't waste time trying to get into the large vehicle by myself, as I usually did to prove that I was a "big girl".

I saw Yvonne get into the back seat next to me and turned towards dad, who was getting into the driver's seat. "I thought Yvonne was going to sit up front with you on the way back."

Dad lifted his hands up. "That was before… _This,_ happened!" He waved his hands around in a fluid motion as he struggled to describe the situation, settling for "this" and thrusting his hands forward towards the wheel. "No more talking for awhile!" He turned the key into the ignition, and mom immediately craned her neck to see the ocean from where we were in the parking lot.

I still couldn't wrap my head around mom's intense fascination with the wave, and it would be years before I really understood why. Looking back, it would have made more sense for Yvonne or I to show that much fascination in the wave. We were kids. But mom was an adult, and so was dad. Except dad was clearly terrified by the wave and mom wasn't.

Mom opened the center console and pulled out her cellphone that had been charging, since she used up most of the battery playing on it on our way to the beach earlier.

I heard the click as mom pressed the home button on her iPhone, and she gazed down at the lock screen.

Dad twisted his body to check behind us as he backed the car up, briefly gazing down at mom's screen for a moment before slamming on the breaks and jerking everyone in the car a bit.

"What did that say?!" He demanded, startling all three of us and causing us to freeze in a form of self-defense.

"What did. That say?!" Dad demanded again, pointed down at mom's phone.

Mom gazed back at Yvonne and I, and then back at dad. There was something she wasn't telling us.

"Lia!" Dad demanded again, frustrated that mom wasn't cooperating.

"Not here, I don't want to scare the kids." Mom told him hurriedly and in a hushed voice.

"They're already scared!" He motioned back to us and our expressions of startled confusion.

"That's because _you're_ scared. And yelling." Mom said calmly.

"Whatever. _Don't_ tell me." Dad twisted around again and continued backing the car up. "I'm not playing your games." He said as he switched the car into drive and sped off onto the road.

The beach we were visiting was in a rather isolated location. On either side of the road, as far as the eye could see, was nothing but old, black lava rock that looked like a jackhammer had been taken to it. It looked post-apocalyptic, which is why when I still had no memories, Yvonne was easily able to convince me that we were some of the last remaining humans after an apocalypse that never actually happened.

The joke ended when I started sobbing and mom and dad found out why.

Every once in awhile, there'll be an ʻōhiʻa tree growing out of the lava rock. They have red flowers, and look very brittle, but are actually very adaptable. That's why they can grow in the lava rock where other plants can't.

I rested my chin on the inside door of the SUV and gazed out the window at the lava rock and the ʻōhiʻa trees as I tried to forget about the wave. But the landscape was so desolate that I wasn't properly distracted. I longed for us to reach town so that we could put this entire wave thing behind us.

When the landscape became less apocalyptic and more like an actual civilization, I perked up. I turned and gazed out the front windshield, expecting to see happy tourists and locals alike going about their day on the beautiful island. But that wasn't what I saw, and I furrowed my brow.

Instead, the traffic that we entered was all backed up, and there was a sea of pedestrians running for the most part, in the same direction. To the right.

"Sea" is probably a confusing way to describe the formation that the people were in, and you'll see why real soon.

"What the hell is going on?!" Dad laid on the horn at the cars in front of us and the people weaving through the cars. I was starting to understand the ominous vibe Yvonne described earlier, and I had a bad feeling that whatever was happening right in front of us was related to the phenomenon we witnessed on the beach.

In front of us, people were abandoning their cars and belongings in a hurry to join the herd of people flowing to the right. There was a sudden break in the flow of people where I could see the ground, and a black liquid was oozing from the left and headed right.

It was almost the same color as Yvonne's hair, and it carried debris from the sea.

It _was_ the sea.

"Oh my god." Mom whispered in awe and horror, raising her hands to her mouth.

The reality of what was happening around us hit as soon as dad opened his car door.

Even now, years later, I can still hear a man amongst the crowd yelling " _It's a tsunami!"_

A tsunami. That's what all the evacuation signs posted all over the island year-round were referring to. That's what Hawaii was supposed to be prepared for in case another ever happened. The very word filled the hearts of older residents with agonizing fear, because they survived the previous two tsunamis that hit Hawaii decades ago.

And a tsunami warning was probably what was displayed on the lock screen of mom's phone.

The water, if it could even be considered water anymore, was carrying more than just ocean debris at this point. It was carrying toys and chairs from the beaches, and wood from the structures of buildings that weren't strong enough to endure the encroaching sea. It was more junk than water at this point. The SUV began to rock and I realized that the water was surrounding us now.

By now it was too late to try and outrun the tsunami. It had already caught up to the people at the end of the herd trying to escape from it. The surging water surrounded their feet and debris knocked at their ankles, toppling over many and added them to the collection of junk. Not everyone who was sucked under the mass came back up.

The car continued to rock as dad pulled himself up and onto the roof. I opened my door and hung out, holding onto my handle on the inside of the car when dad suddenly scooped me up and placed me on the roof next to him.

Mom had just barely pulled herself ontop the roof when the water surged by, carrying a large piece of junk. You could barely even identify what most of the junk was, you could just tell it wasn't water.

I could feel and hear this debris scrape right up along mom and Yvonne's side of the car. No one could think fast enough to realize what would happen if that piece of debris hit one of us before it did.

Yvonne screamed as the debris crashed into her right side, knocking her off the side of the car and into the water where that same mass of junk topped her and forced her under. There was no way of knowing if my sister would ever resurface or if she was doomed to remain prisoner under the black sea forever.

I cried out in despair and horror for my sister, but I knew that dad was suffering worse. She was his biological daughter. Mom and I were just step family to Yvonne. We loved her just like blood, but dad had been with her since she was born. Our love didn't compare to his.

The mass of junk that had bombarded her was getting further and further away, and Yvonne likely with it.

" _YVOOOONE!"_ Dad bellowed, but there was no way she would have been able to hear him. He hurried to the back end of the car, the direction in which the sea was flowing in. He craned his neck and searched desperately for Yvonne, but there was no sign of her among all the rubbish. The mass that she was likely pinned under was getting further and further away.

Dad locked his gaze on a berg of trash that was particularly sturdy looking, and was close enough to the car that he might be able to make a jump. By the time mom extended her arm and cried out "Honey, don't-", dad had already taken his leap of faith.

Mom screamed as the rubbish gave way under dad's weight. He desperately grasped at the debris before it had a chance to submerge him completely and started to pull the upper half of his body out of the black water.

"I have to go after her!" He told us. "She could still be under there!"

Dad was drifting farther and farther away and the SUV was rocking alarmingly. If mom and I stayed any longer, we might end up like Yvonne.

Mom lowered her head and squeezed her eyes shut in distress as she contemplated what to do not just as an individual but as a person responsible for another human being. After a moment, she lifted her head and smiled at me. "Well, I guess we'll just have to follow them, huh?"

My yellow-lensed eyes widened and my mouth gaped. "Wha.. Momma, You.. You aren't serious, are you?! I can't even swim that good!"

The SUV rocked violently, ready to give way at any moment. The world was crumbling around us but mom just calmly took my hands and said "It'll be okay. Get on my back, and don't let go." All with a smile on her face.

I had no choice but to trust mom. Our family was being swept away and the two of us were next. I quickly scurried around her and crawled onto her backside in a piggy-back position. I wrapped my arms around her neck while she grasped the underside of my legs and rose up steadily despite our rocky platform.

"Are you ready?" Mom asked over her shoulder, smiling. I was as ready as I could be, but I didn't tell her that. I didn't get a chance to say anything before mom lept from the car and onto what appeared to be a dense pile of rubbish that was passing by.

Mom stumbled a bit as she landed and her feet began to sink a bit, but we didn't fall over and we didn't fall through like dad did when he tried jumping onto similar debris.

We were moving in the same direction as dad and Yvonne now, so we weren't getting farther away from them. But as long as they were still moving, we weren't getting any closer, either.

I couldn't bear to watch the black water destroy the home that I had come to know. It was the only home I had. Wherever mom and I lived before I woke up in Hawaii two years ago, was not home.

I tightened my grip around mom's neck as I buried my face into her back to hide. I felt her squeeze my thighs in response, and I felt somewhat reassured. Mom was there when I woke up with no memories, and mom would be there when I woke up from this nightmare. This wasn't real, right?

I longed to wake up back on the beach in the sand and have this all be a dream that I conjured up from listening to my family talk about the water while I dozed in the sun. When I opened my eyes the black water would be gone.

The black water wasn't gone when I opened my eyes. I was still on mom's back and we were still drifting among the black water and debris.

The water didn't seem to be surging as violently has it had before. It seemed to be flowing slower, more calmly, if it were even possible.

I was preparing to rest my head down on mom's shoulders once more when I suddenly heard her cry out.

"Isaac!" She called out over the tumbling black water.

I nearly loosened my grip on mom. She had startled me. But then I remembered.

Isaac was dad's name.

I jerked my head up and looked around desperately, my eyes falling on two figures on the balcony of a motel whose lower levels had been consumed by the black water.

The larger figure was obviously dad, whose attention had been caught when he heard mom cry out. The other figure was much smaller and laid almost lifelessly on the floor of the balcony. Yvonne had somehow broke free from the black sea, but I had no idea if she was alive or not.

"Lia!" Dad gripped the metal balcony roughly as he spotted us floating ever closer to the motel. If we could get onto the balcony, we would be reunited with our family. We might be able to survive this thing.

Mom transversed the motion of the water and crossed the floating debris to get closer to the motel as dad raced along the balcony to get closer to our floating isle of rubbish. Before we could bypass the balcony completely, mom lept and grasped at the vertical metal bars.

I felt a jerk as our combined weight settled after the jump and I instinctively wrapped my legs around mom's torso. Her knuckles were already turning white and I knew we wouldn't be able to stay like this forever.

"Lia, you're okay!" Dad exclaimed as he reached over the balcony, trying to figure out how he was going to get the two of us up.

Mom's breathing became labored as our weight burdened her upper body. "Take.. Hera.. First.."

I gazed up at dad's bear like hands as they came down at me. "Hera, you're going to have to stand up. That's the only way I can bring you up here!" Dad told me.

I furrowed my brow. "I-I can't stand up without stepping all over mom, though!"

Mom gasped as she regripped at the bars with her hands. "Isaac- Hurry."

Dad furrowed his brow and hefted himself over the balcony. I could see that he was standing on his tippy toe as he lowered himself as much as possible.

I closed my eyes tightly as dad grabbed me by the back of my bathing suit and began to tug. I reluctantly released my arms and legs from around mom.

"Almost.. There.." Dad grunted, and I could feel my arms brush against the metal poles of the balcony.

I opened my eyes when I felt the tension release prematurely. My bathing suit had ripped, and dad lost his hold on me.

I looked up to see dad grab my ankle, and half a second later the upper half of my back, and the back of my head, smacked into mom. I had expected to hear mom cry out and tell us to hurry, be careful, that she wouldn't be able to hold on much longer. But that wasn't what happened.

The sensation of mom that I felt on my back when I hit her vanished as quickly as it had come. I felt the jerking sensation of my weight as gravity allowed me to hang fully upside down with dad still powerfully grasping my ankle.

Time seemed to have slowed down. I came to my senses as best I could in this upside down stupor in just enough time to watch mom's sarong skirt and loose pink hair flow upward as the same forces of gravity that threw me into her sent her plummeting down towards the black sea.

Mom's right arm was outstretched towards me as she fell with a look of despair on her face. There was no way she'd be able to grab anything on the way down to stop her plummet into the black sea but she reached out anyways, and I felt myself reaching out to her as well.

Mom parted the way of rubbish as she fell into the water, the junk quickly regrouping after she was completely submerged.

I remember dad crying out mom's name. It plays over and over again in my head in slow motion. We both thought she was going to get swept away, pinned under the toxic black sea just like Yvonne had been. But there was a ray of hope when mom's hand shot out from under the debris and she began to claw her way back onto the surface on top of the junk.

To this day I'm still unsure if the water actually _did_ stop once mom had resurfaced, but it felt like it did. The water flow had at least reduced significantly, because mom scrambled over the isles of debris and back under where dad and I were on the balcony, as the black sea had pulled her away a few feet when she fell into it.

The water level seemed so much lower than it did when mom and I first drifted by the motel. Before, mom was able to jump and grasp the bars of the balcony with me on her back. But now I was dangling a good foot or so below the balcony and mom still seemed so far away below me.

"Lia!" Dad cries out again, and with both hands around my ankles now, he spins me around so that I'm at least facing forced as he lowers me down towards mom.

There were no words exchanged between mom and I, only an intense stare as we both strained to reach each other.

Mom grimaces as she gets on her tippy toes and stretches her right arm as far above her head as her body will allow, her fingertips finally brushing against mine.

Dad leans an inch or so more over the balcony, but anymore and either the balcony will give way due to our combined weight or he'll be pulled over the edge entirely.

Weakly, I grasp mom's wrist with a clapping sound. My left hand tightly grasps my right wrist, as if that will better secure my hold on mom.

Before dad can readjust his footing to heave us up, the water begins moving again. Slowly at first, but then faster, and more violently. The water level seems to rise once more as all of the water and debris that had forced its way into the heart of the island was quickly being sucked back out into the sea.

The black sea yanked at mom's legs like an opponent in a game of tug-o-war, but this wasn't a game. This was could very well be life or death, and in a few hours I would come to realize that it really _was_ life or death.

The force of the rapids get to be unbearable. The sea is determined to literally tear us away from one another. I barely still had my ring and pinkie fingers interlocked with mom's when the black sea finally got to be too much.

The black sea not only ripped mom away as it flowed to the left back to where it had come from, but it sucked her under as well.

" _NOOO!"_ I remember screaming, the piercing sound of my voice even startling and alarming me.

I reached out for mom but it was useless. She had disappeared into the black sea and unlike Yvonne, mom _was_ destined to remain prisoner under it forever.


	3. Chapter 1, Part 2

When the tsunami had finally receded back into the ocean and the danger was gone, we had no home to return to. Almost everything the water could touch had been destroyed, and we could not await in the comfort of our own home for news regarding mom. Everything was in ruins, and we scavenged what belongings we could. The rest had to be left behind.

Under some of the lighter rubble I found mom's favorite sarong, which she had left at home the day the tsunami hit because she had planned to wash it when we got back.

I remember burying my face into its red and white fabric when I finally freed it from the rubble, and crying. It still smelled like her. I continued to carry it around with me at all times, especially while we were still waiting for rescuers to come to our aid.

Most of the shelters were crowded, and many people had to sit outside among the debris and small puddles that the sea had forgotten when it returned from where it came.

For what seemed like hours each day, Yvonne and I sat huddled up to each other, our knees to our chests as Yvonne pulled our shared blanket tighter around us. Dad would sit with his legs spread, holding his head low in his hands. Whenever one of the rescuers came by, he stood up and immediately asked them about mom. Was she alive? Had they found someone that looked like her among all of the corpses that remained after the disaster?

The answer was no. There were only four people recovered that had striking pink hair like mom. The two of them that were alive could tell you themselves that they were not Lia Preston-Zane, and while the other two were deceased, it was obvious by looking at them that they were not mom. One of the deceased was male, and the other was a woman bordering on obesity, very different from mom's thin yet curvy body.

In a way, we were lucky. There were so many recovered bodies that were so horribly mangled and banged up from the violence of the tsunami that they could not be identified, and many families were left wondering if that body really was their loved one or if they were still out there somewhere waiting to be rescued. Mom's hair color served as a key identifying feature. We were never unsure whether a body really belonged to mom or not.

But for several days, weeks even, we were left wondering whether mom had died and if her body was out at sea or if she was still alive waiting to be rescued out there. Helicopters and rescue boats from the mainland went out on searches, but I don't think anyone that they recovered deep at sea was actually alive. If they were, none of them were mom.

Even people in Japan went out and searched their waters for any survivors, as a lot of the debris sucked back into the sea had washed its way into Japanese waters. They found many bodies and reported all of them so that they could hopefully be identified by their families, but none of them were mom and they found no survivors.

Many countries donated canned food, bottled water, blankets and hygienic products to help us survivors. With most of our civilization destroyed, it hardly seemed like we lived in a first world country. The Red Cross was actively posted and aiding us for weeks, along with representatives of Caduceus International.

Everyone's heard of The Red Cross before. But at only seven years of age with little knowledge of the outside world due to my unique situation, I had never heard of Caduceus International nor could I wrap my head around what they were and what they stood for. At the time, it didn't really matter. All I knew is that they were doctors and other healthcare providers. They, along with The Red Cross, tended to those with physical injuries as well as those who fell physically ill.

It was because of Caduceus International's involvement that I met Leslie Sears. She was a member of Caduceus, more specifically a member of the United States branch that was located in Angeles Bay, California back on the mainland. Caduceus International had asked all of its subdivisions to spare a member or two to aid in helping the people of Hawaii.

Leslie was a beautiful nurse in her early twenties who had come from Caduceus USA along with her colleague, Dr. Stephen Clarks. She had dark green hair, a color not all that uncommon, kept at shoulder length in addition to light brown eyes that were almost amber in color.

Despite the gloomy atmosphere left behind by the tsunami, Leslie maintained an exuberant personality that was contagious. It was difficult not to be calm and even happy around her.

I remember watching with intense curiosity as Leslie tended to a deep gash on Yvonne's right leg.

"What's that?" I asked as she flipped the cap to a brown bottle.

"It's a hydrogen peroxide solution," Leslie told me while also using the opportunity to warn Yvonne before pouring it onto the wound. "It might sting a bit, but it kills the germs that would otherwise make the injury a lot worse."

Yvonne winced and tensed up leg as the solution audibly sizzled and produced a bubbling white froth. It almost sounded as if Leslie had doused a hot surface with water.

"Do you see that?" Leslie asked me, pointed with her gloved hand. "That's how you know it's working. If it isn't bubbling like that, then either there's no germs to be killed or the solution has gone bad. But more often than not it just means the solution has gone bad."

"Does it make things worse if it's gone bad?" I asked Leslie as she gently wiped Yvonne's wound with a sterile cotton pad.

"Mm, no, it doesn't make things worse…" Leslie explained as she searched for the tail on her roll of gauze. "But it doesn't help, either. It's like when soda goes flat - It doesn't taste good anymore."

I lifted my head as dad and Dr. Clarks approached us.

"Is she current with her Tetanus immunizations?" The doctor asked.

"Yes- Yes she is." Dad nodded. "It's not bad, is it?" He asked, referring to Yvonne's gash.

"She'll need stitches, but I'm more worried about infection." The brunette man told dad. "I'll make sure you get the brochure for taking care of the sutures." He then turned towards me a bit. "What about her. Is she current, too?"

Dad scrunched his brow further. "I always took that one to all her doctor's appointments myself." He said, pointing to Yvonne. "But that one.." He pointed at me. "..I would remind her mom that she's overdue for a check-up. She would always say she'd handle it but I don't remember her ever saying anything about actually taking her. But I can't imagine that my wife wouldn't have gotten her immunized."

"So you're saying you don't know anything about her medical history?" Dr. Clarks asked dad with a brow raised.

"It's not like we could look into it anyways-" Dad shook his head. "My wife is gone, the records were probably destroyed by the tsunami and I don't think my step-daughter would be able to provide any helpful information herself." He lifted his head up and said "But you didn't find any injuries or anything when you looked her over, right?"

"That is correct," The doctor began. "But-"

"We shouldn't worry about it, then. Like I said, I can't think of a reason why Lia wouldn't have gotten her vaccinated." Dad cut him off. "Yvonne's going to be fine, right? Then my next order of business is locating my wife."

Weeks went by and there was no sign of mom. Yvonne had given up hope first, and I reluctantly followed. I knew she wasn't coming back, but I was in denial that mom was dead. While staring into the fabric of her sarong I would tell myself that mom was still alive out there and how she had probably made her way onto an even tinier island than the ones of Hawaii.

Dad held onto his faith until the very end, but by the time the airport had been reconstructed, he finally came to terms with mom's fate.

Dad had chosen to stay in Hawaii back when Yvonne's mom had passed away. But he had no intention of staying on the islands after being widowed a second time. He thought of mom at every turn, and the grief of having lost his spouse resurfaced memories of his first wife, too.

With nothing to lose, we boarded a flight to Angeles Bay, California.

Yvonne was furious when she found out the destination of our flight and dad's intentions. She had no intention of living near the ocean ever again, especially not the Pacific Ocean. I couldn't blame her. I didn't want to be near the ocean, either. Both of us had been incredibly uneasy regarding the sea ever since the tsunami hit.

But I guess that dad believed that as long as he was near the Pacific Ocean, that mom might come back to him one day. We didn't end up living right on the water, but the bay was a big tourist attraction.

I avoided going to the beach whenever possible, even on days when it was hot. It didn't matter anyways, since dad was never home and Yvonne couldn't drive. The first week or two, Yvonne and I were home alone all the time while dad. He was always at his job, "Working at the docks" as Yvonne said. I didn't really know what that meant, but I guess he wanted to be close to the water so he could feel close to mom.

California was far less hotter than Hawaii, but was warm nonetheless. It was early September, and the temperature would dip soon. In the meantime, Yvonne and I were stuck in the new house in front of an old fan to keep cool. I was easily amused by the vibrations produced by the fan when talking into it, but Yvonne was twelve and not as easily entertained as I was. Dad bought a sprinkler and the two of us started hanging out in the backyard, instead.

Whenever dad actually was home, Yvonne guilted him about leaving me alone with her all day. "I can't remember the last time I interacted with a kid my age." She told him. "I can't make friends if I have to drag Hera everywhere I go!"

Although Yvonne and I got along a lot better than when we had first met, the current situation was creating some tension between us. My time as an adequate playmate to her was short-lived- I had become a burden instead. Either Yvonne was tied down to the house because she had to supervise me, or she would have to bring me along with her wherever she went. This did not provide many opportunities for my sister to make friends her age, because a little sibling was a repellent.

Dad looked into hiring a babysitter to watch me so that Yvonne could do as she pleased. He didn't look for very long, because he had someone in mind from the very beginning.

It was Leslie that became my babysitter. Anyone familiar with what Caduceus does would think that employment with them would be more demanding than the average health profession. But Leslie managed to make things work. Before the school year started, she watched me during the day until Yvonne's curfew or whenever Yvonne came home from socializing. Leslie would then head to work for an evening shift and Yvonne would be responsible for me. If we were lucky, dad would come home in time for dinner.

Before Leslie had become my babysitter, I regularly carried mom's sarong around with me. Once Leslie started babysitting me, she used the long fabric of mom's sarong to create a skirt and strapless top for me. I started wearing it all the time, but not out of fondness for mom- It was out of fondness for Leslie.

I saw more of dad when the school year started. He was the one getting me ready in the morning since Yvonne was leaving earlier than me for middle school. One days that Yvonne was hanging out with new friends after school, Leslie was the one waiting for me at home.

I learned more from Leslie than I did at school, and she doubled as a tutor for me since I was not very good at math. The sort of math that I was in doing in second grade was nothing compared to what Yvonne was doing in the seventh grade, but I had not yet caught onto the pattern of how to multiply single digit numbers by ten. Not only did Leslie show me what the product would be, but why the answer was what it was.

I learned a lot about medicine and Caduceus from Leslie, as well. In addition to the cheerier fairy tales that the two of us would watch together in the form of Disney movies, Leslie told me more morbid "fairy tales" in the form of the dark ages of medicine.

The stories that I remember the best include the one about the plague doctors. She told me how a long time ago, many people fell ill and died from a plague that was dubbed "The Black Death". I asked her if it was like the black death that had plagued Hawaii and took my mother away. After that, Leslie started calling it "The Bubonic Plague" instead.

Leslie told me that the doctors wore scary masks that covered their entire face and had a bird-like beak to them. Inside these beaks, the plague doctors would stuff flowers and anything else that smelled good to protect themselves from the plague.

I remember furrowing my brow when she told me that part. "That doesn't sound right." I told her. "Why would smell-good-stuff protect them from getting sick?"

Leslie giggled. "It wouldn't. This was before we discovered that it was germs that make people sick. Back then, people believed in something called "miasma theory". They thought that "bad air" was what made people sick."

"They must have been really stupid," I told her. "To think that air makes people sick."

"Well, there is a bit of truth to the miasma theory." Leslie grinned. "There are diseases, like Measles, that are airborne and highly contagious. It can hang in the air for hours."

"What is Measles?" I asked her.

Leslie told me that it's most prominent feature is a rash, and that the complications are often more serious than the typical symptoms. She said that Measles can result in blindness, pneumonia, and inflammation of the brain.

"Measles can be deadly," She told me, then smiled. "But you don't need to worry, since chances are you were vaccinated for it along with Mumps and Rubella."

I simply shrugged. "I've never been sick before."

"Huh? What do you mean?" She asked.

"I just don't remember ever being sick." I said plainly, which was true. I had no memories of ever being ill.

"I'm sure you have." Leslie said. "You just might not remember it, especially if it was something as simple as a cold. It's such a regular part of life, we don't always think about it. But at Caduceus, we think about it all the time."

In November and December of 2015, Yvonne and I had our respective birthdays. We were eight and thirteen now, and a new year was ahead of us.

But a few weeks after New Year's, Leslie got busy with work.

A girl around my age had recently been admitted to the pediatric ward, and she was under Leslie's supervision when she wasn't being subjected to all kinds of tests.

It made me jealous that Leslie was spending her time with another kid, even if it was part of her job to someone who was incredibly ill.

Leslie tried to explain to me that the girl, Amy, was very sick and that she needed as much care and attention as possible to rid her of what was plaguing her body. I remained bitter, especially as I saw less and less of Leslie. There was some tension between us for awhile, but most of it was one-sided.

With Leslie less available, Yvonne had to pick up the slack and spend less time going to the mall with her friends. This angered her, and created some tension between the two of us, as well.

For two years this went on, because Amy never got better. When I did see Leslie, it wasn't for babysitting. Rather, it was us spending the day doing something fun together on her days off.

I was somewhat less bitter towards Amy. In the spring when I was ten-years-old, there was a day when Leslie and I had gotten hard-serve ice cream and sat on a fishing dock. In three years I had started to grow more accustomed to the water again, though not entirely. Leslie sat with her legs hanging over the edge while I sat cross-legged and made a point to be a few feet away from the edge in all directions.

The ice cream that I had gotten was pitch black in color and tasted like a more-pleasant version of black licorice.

I watched idly as a stream of black ice cream melted by the hot sun trickled down the side of the cone and dribbled onto my denim skirt. I had barely registered that it happened, because I was too mesmerized by the trickling of the black liquid. It reminded me of the black sea.

"Oops!" Leslie exclaimed, and I turned my head to see her dabbing the spot with an extra napkin. "I'll use my stain stick on that when I have a free hand." She said, referring to the fact that she still had a cone of her own to keep an eye on so the same thing wouldn't happen to her.

"How's Amy?" I asked before diving in and licking the melting base of my black ice cream scoop.

Leslie slowly rotated her cone and licked the scoop with the tip of her tongue before answering. "Things aren't looking very good.. There's twice as many of the tumors as there was before, and Dr. Niguel is worried that it might metastasize."

Despite what it sounds like, what Amy had wasn't cancer. It was 2016 when Amy was first admitted and by then, a definite cure for even the most aggressive forms of cancer had been found. If Amy had cancer, then she wouldn't be at a place like Caduceus. What Amy had was something far more malevolent and unknown.

What Amy had could hardly even be considered tumors. They pushed the very definition and understanding of what a tumor was. Leslie told me that it appeared as if the tumors were actively moving across the surface of the organ, something completely unheard of.

"Dr. Niguel said that they're not actually "moving" across the organ," She said, referring to the head of the research and development department. "Rather, they copy themselves to different locations. And that location just happens to be right next to the original location. It's as if they cut and paste themselves ever so slightly to the left, or whichever direction they're going in, and they do it so fast that it looks like they're really moving."

"That sounds a lot like moving to me." I told Leslie, licking at my ice cream.

"Dr. Chase has been spending a lot of time with Amy lately," She told me, referring to the new surgeon that had been hired about a year ago. He was Amy's older brother, and he had made an effort to get employed at Caduceus specifically because of her.

"Does that mean you'll be able to spend more time with me?" I asked her before taking a bite out of my cone.

"Maybe." Was all Leslie said in response.

A few weeks later, a pandemic swept the country. It was a form of biological terrorism, as the disease in question was not only deliberately introduced into communities, but was man-made. As it turns out, the disease was the same one that Amy was suffering from. It's called Gangliated Utrophin Immuno Latency Toxin, but is usual referred to by the acronym "GUILT".

The terrorist organization that developed GUILT has supposedly been active since 2000, Even before Amy, there were small numbers of people that were afflicted by illnesses with similar symptoms. The group is called Delphi, and they operated under the belief that medicine has destroyed the natural order and taken away man's right to die.

They aren't entirely wrong. Even in this day and age, it's as very controversial thing to allow the terminally ill the right to a peaceful and dignified death. It's my personal belief that they have the right to one, but it will be a long time before that mindset becomes more widespread.

It's so controversial, in fact, that a local doctor practicing euthanasia had to work in secrecy. Leslie told me that there were rumors around Caduceus of a "Death Doctor", a doctor granting patients a peaceful death.

Years later, I found out a very classified piece of information: The Death Doctor was Dr. Chase, Amy's older brother. It was his belief that it's selfish to keep patients alive when they are suffering and they themselves desire death, that we only keep them around to make other people feel better. I can't say that I disagree with him.

Amy's prognosis was extremely poor, and it did not look like she was going to be able to survive her GUILT infection. The best possible outcome would be that she would become a vegetable on life support. Dr. Chase planned to euthanize her, until she was saved.

The heroes of 2018 were Dr. Derek Stiles and Nurse Angie Thompson, the doctor and nurse team responsible for curing the majority of GUILT victims. They became employed at Caduceus shortly before GUILT became widespread, as they were successfully able to cure a GUILT victim back at their previous place of employment: Hope Hospital.

It's said that Dr. Derek Stiles possesses a supernatural ability called "The Healing Touch", which allows him to the slow down time around him and move at superhuman speed for about thirty seconds of real time when the power is activated. The general belief is that this ability is what made him such a successful eradicator of GUILT.

An abandoned Delphi research lab was found in Africa, and from there, the US Army traced Delphi's connections to Eidoth Pharmaceuticals, a legitimate company near Angeles Bay that had been sponsoring Delphi. Through interrogation, the current location of Delphi was obtained and Eidoth was shut down.

Delphi's base of operations was on a vessel out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, the news of which only strengthened my firm belief that the ocean, specifically the Pacific, is a baleful place.

Derek Stiles and Angie Thompson, along with higher-ups from Caduceus Europe, aided in the raid on Delphi. On Delphi's ocean vessel, seven different children from around the world were found in culture tanks, where their bodies were being used to cultivate GUILT and create the archetypes of each strain. These children were called "Sinners".

Derek and Angie operated on and successfully cured each Sinner, who were then taken into the custody of the military. With no more innocent lives to worry about, the doctor and nurse team found themselves face to face with the founder of Delphi himself: A man who calls himself "Adam".

From what I've heard, Adam looked just like a mummified corpse. That isn't too far from the truth, either, because Adam wasn't exactly "alive". Rather, he was in a state of suspended animation, which is where most vital functions cease. It was because of this that he managed to be approximately 121 years old.

It's said that GUILT comes in seven different strains, with each of them named after the days of the week in Greek. The first strain that Delphi released was called Kyriaki, which means "Sunday". The last one they released, called Savato, means "Saturday". However, rumor has it that there was actually an eighth strain of GUILT, called Bliss, existing inside of Adam and allowing him to maintain his state of suspended animation.

Adam, too, was thought to have been taken into the custody of the military, and shortly after his suspended animation ceased and he formally "died". However, this proved not to be the case, as the "Z-Cells" that Caduceus Europe was producing to repair damaged human tissue actually came from Adam's body.

The results of the Z-Cell experiments were catastrophic. During a conference at Caduceus Europe meant to showcase the healing properties of the cells, the human specimen who had been treated with Z-Cells fell ill in the middle of the conference, and a small outbreak occurred in the building. Derek Stiles and Angie Thompson, who had been attendees of the conference, save the day once again and operate on all of the victims along with a recent employee of Caduceus Europe: A talented surgeon by the name of Nozomi Weaver.

The day was saved, and the United Nations declared all GUILT research (that is, research on how to use GUILT as opposed to research against it) to be illegal. Adam's body was destroyed.

Yvonne had actually fallen in with the sixth strain of GUILT that Delphi intentionally introduced into the community. It was called Paraskevi, which means "Friday".

Because of our connections to Caduceus through Leslie, it was not hard for Yvonne to get admitted once she started showing symptoms. Because her symptoms were caught early and she was admitted in an ample amount of time, her chances were good. Infection with the Paraskevi strain is particularly time sensitive, as the infection produces a fibrous worm that migrates through the body until it reaches the heart. If the worm burrows into the heart, there's no hope for survival. Because of this, Paraskevi has been dubbed "Arrow to the Heart".

Yvonne was operated on by Dr. Clarks, and she made a full recovery. I got to visit Yvonne regularly while she was recovering at Caduceus. Even dad made an effort to come see her when he could.

Leslie finally introduced me to Amy and Dr. Chase, as well. Leslie and Dr. Chase were good friends due to working together closely due to Amy's case. Dr. Chase, who told me to call him Tyler, was handsome young man with shoulder length blonde hair and pale blue eyes.

"Aww, look, Hera! You and Amy are braid buddies!" Leslie cheered once we had been introduced.

Amy and I were the same age at ten years old, and it was true that both of us wore braids. Amy's burgundy purple hair was up in pigtails that were braided, whereas I had shifted to a more complicated braid hairstyle courtesy of Leslie. There were there large braids that had been braided close my my scalp, and at the lower back of my head there were two buns formed out of braids, as well.

"It's gonna be a few more hours until she goes home, right?" Tyler asked Leslie, referring to me. "Why don't you introduce her to the other girls her age? I'll make sure Amy gets her medicine."

"That sounds like a good idea!" Leslie told him. "Hera, there's some other girls in the pediatric ward your age. Maybe you'd like to keep them company while I work my shift?"

I agreed and Leslie took me down the hall to a room being shared by two other kids.

"Why don't patients get their own rooms?" I asked Leslie.

"It saves space, and usually kids don't mind sharing rooms and are happy to have the company when their families aren't here visiting them. Usually it's the adults that mind, but they usually get their own rooms."

"Oh." I responded as we walked into doorway.

Leslie smiled and knocked on the doorframe. "Hi, girls. How are you feeling? I brought a playmate for you."

"I hate this," The blonde girl on the far side of the room said. "Being in bed like this, I want to stretch so bad. But when I do, I can feel my incision stretching, too."

"Aww, yeah." Leslie told her understandingly. "That part's no fun. Be careful if you do decide to stretch, we'll have a problem if your stitches tear."

I walked up to the bedside of the chocolate skinned girl, who was on the side of the room closer to the hall.

"Do you have GUILT, too?" I asked her.

"Not anymore." She answered. "Do you?"

"No, no." Leslie smiled. "No one you'll be interacting with has GUILT. Those suspected of having GUILT are on an entirely different floor so they don't get anyone else sick."

"Which one did you have?" I asked, referring to which strain of GUILT she had contracted.

"Lessee.." Leslie picked up the clipboard dangling at the foot of the girl's bed and checked her charts. "She had the Deftera strain, the same one that Amy had."

"The tumor one?" I asked.

Leslie nodded. "It's also the one that means 'Monday'."

"I hate Mondays." The blonde girl said from the other side of the room.

I walked around Leslie until I was standing in between the two beds, facing the blonde girl. "What about you?"

"She had the Tetarti strain." Leslie answered.

"'Wednesday'." The blonde girl added.

The three of us became quick friends. Lilac, the blonde girl, actually went to the same elementary school as me. We made an effort to spend time together during lunch and recess.

Amanda, the chocolate skinned girl, went to a different elementary school. However, Leslie told her mom what great friends she had become with us. Her mom made an effort to touch base with Dad and Lilac's parents, since Amanda didn't have many friends and she thought it would be good for her.

Yvonne was more than delighted that I would be hanging out at my friends' houses, since that meant she was free to do whatever she wished. "You have everything you need, right?" She would ask me while we were waiting for me to be picked up. She did not want to have to stay home to let me back into the house incase I forgot something.

Dad became more and more distant. It was usually either Leslie or Yvonne that would get me ready for school, be there when I got home, organized playdates for me or be the one to cook dinner.

"How come we never hang out at your house?" Lilac asked one day while the three of us were laying in the freshly mowed grass of her backyard.

"Cuz my dad is never home and my sister wants to go hang out with her own friends and do teenager stuff." I answered.

"How come your dad's never home?" Amanda asked, kicking her feet in the air.

"I think it's his way of coping with my mom." I told her.

"Why, what happened to her?" Lilac asked bluntly as she picked handfuls of grass.

"She's dead." I answered just as bluntly.

"How? When?"

Amanda gave Lilac a look.

"A tsunami when I was seven." I answered.

Amanda was more empathetic. "The one that struck Hawaii? I'm so sorry."

"What about your mom?" I asked Lilac. She had two dads. I figured one of them was a step-dad, but we never heard anything about her mom.

"I don't have one." She answered plainly.

I furrowed my brow. "Whaddya mean you don't have one? Everyone has a mom."

"Not me." Lilac answered. "I have two dads."

"Yeah, but how?" I asked her, confused.

Lilac never told us her biological relation to her dads and how she was conceived until we were all older, because anything she told us might lead us to believe that her dads weren't her "real" parents.

Lilac's dads had actually worked out a way for her to be biologically related to both of them, though only one was her biological father. Her dads, Donovan and Bailey Fyals, chose Bailey's sister, Lyla, to be their surrogate. Donovan and Lyla conceived Lilac together, therefore making Bailey blood related to Lilac as an uncle.

Lyla handed Lilac off to Donovan and her brother as soon as she was born, and took on the role of aunt.

Lilac looked just like most biological members of the Fyals family. As previously established, she had blonde hair. But she also had dark pink eyes that run in the family.

No one really knows if Amanda's eyes are the same as her mom's or not. Amanda's eyes are palatine blue, just like mine. But Amanda's mom always has bangs covering her eyes. I don't think anyone's ever seen her eyes before except Amanda, her sisters and maybe Amanda's father, who lives in Alaska for work.

I learned early on that Amanda's mom worked at the local strip club as a dancer. I remember telling her and Lilac that I didn't think dad ever planned to remarry, because he acted like he was cursed or something since he had been widowed twice. Amanda suggested setting him up with one of her mom's friends from work, since most of them were single. I asked her what kind of work her mom does, and she answered that her mom is an exotic dancer.

"You mean a stripper." Lilac corrected her.

"No, she's an exotic dancer." Amanda responded quickly.

"That's just a nice way of saying 'stripper'. She's a stripper."

"N-No she's not! She isn't!" Amanda retorted, balling her hands into fists.

"Uh huh." Lilac insisted. "Your mom dresses just like Yvonne and the popular girls she's friends with."

Around fourteen or fifteen years old, Yvonne started to change. She abandoned the nice, well-behaved girls she had become friends with once the "popular" girls took an interest in her. There were lots popular kids the high school, but some were more deserving of the popularity than others. There were some kids that were popular because they were in sports, band, theater, or they were apart of student government. Sometimes they just had good personalities. Yvonne's 'friends" were popular because they had nice clothes and other luxuries because their parents had more money than the other families in the school district.

It wasn't uncommon to wear revealing clothing in Hawaii, especially since most of the time, it was a swimsuit. People sometimes walked around Angeles Bay in swimsuits, but not at school. A lot of the tops, and sometimes even bottoms, that Yvonne and her friends would wear looked like swimsuits. It broke the dress code, but I think that eventually, the faculty just gave up trying to enforce it with them.

Yvonne started to act like a "popular" girl, too. But not like the genuinely nice popular people that were previously mentioned. These popular girls were mean, and thought that most people were below them.

I saw my teenage sister trying to use her looks and sex appeal to get the things she wanted. I have a feeling that it wasn't what she wanted to do, but it was what her new "friends" had taught her and it got her more things that she wouldn't have been able to get otherwise, such as better grades and presents from boys.

One thing about Yvonne that remained unchanged was a fondness for animals. When she was fifteen, she came home with a black kitten one day that became a permanent resident of our house. She didn't even ask dad first, but he was never home. His name was Charcoal Kitty, and Yvonne took care of him herself, making sure that he always had food, water, and a clean litter box.

Amanda liked animals, too. So much so that she was a vegetarian. When we were a little older and didn't need adult supervision, like around eleven or twelve, we spent more time at my house. There wasn't as much to do there, so we usually did homework on the floor and watched as Charcoal Kitty stepped all over it.

"He's soooooo cuuute!" Amanda would gush while his tail quivered and shook.

"Cats are alright," Lilac said as she laid sprawled out on my couch with a hard-covered picture book from the nonfiction section of the school's library. "But how cool would it be to have a pet turtle? Or a seahorse?" She turned the book towards us and pointed to a picture of the latter. "A turtle you can carry around with you in a handbag, just like with those little dogs."

"Yeah, but you can't take the seahorse places with you." I told her from where I was on the floor, trying to complete the math homework that was due the next day.

"I could like, put it in a jar or something." Lilac respond, flopping back against the couch.

"Noooo! You can't do that!" Amanda lifted her head from her own homework. "That would be dangerous for it!"

"You're thinking way too small!" Said our newest friend Kimmy, who was a grade ahead of us. "You gotta think bigger! Like a shark."

"I read this thing once," I began telling them. "That horseshoe crabs have amebocytes in their blood that's used to detect bacteria."

"Well, I guess that's kind of cool." Kimmy blinked her light blue eyes. "Horseshoe crabs are kind of cool.. They're funny looking."

"What happens to the horseshoe crabs?" Amanda asked, concerned for their wellbeing.

"I don't know," I answered, knowing that my lack of a proper answer would not put her at ease. "I'll have to look into it, but I think they're safely released back into the ocean after."

Because of her kind and nurturing nature, Amanda had decided that the path of a nurse would be best suited to her. However, there are so many duties that a nurse can have that she didn't want to be limited to just one, so she decided to aim for multiple certifications. I know for a fact that Angie and Leslie are registered nurses, but they also must have surgical assistant and technologist training, as they both regularly assist Caduceus surgeons in the OR.

Lilac, on the other hand, liked to live life in the fast line, not unlike Kimmy. Her plan was to become a paramedic, and I feel like she was inspired by one of her uncles, who is a police officer. Afterall, firefighters, police officers and paramedics tend to be associated together.

Despite the inspiration and unfaltering respect that I have for Leslie, my ambitions lie a bit more beyond the duties of a nurse. That is not to say, however, that what nurses do are not important. Nurses are absolutely important, and their contributions are often overlooked by patients and doctors alike. It's just that I'm a bit more interested in performing duties of a higher order, if you will. Duties usually assigned to a doctor.

I suppose Lilac and I should feel flattered that people assume we want to be nurses. But rather, we feel agitated. Like I said, there's nothing wrong with being a nurse. Nurses are important. It should be a big honor. But it's the gender roles that bother us. We're assumed that we want to be nurses because of our gender.

It's never bothered Amanda, especially since they're not wrong with their assumptions about her wanting to be a nurse. As long as we've known her, Amanda has always been extremely feminine, and I guess the role of a nurse is associated with femininity. She willingly falls into a place with a lot of gender roles and norms. However, she believes that falling into gender roles should be a choice and as such, she considers herself to be a feminist.

Kimmy and Lilac, on the other hand, are a lot more tomboyish, though I don't know if they necessarily identify as tomboys. They're regularly breaking gender norms, and as a result, Lilac also identifies as a feminist. Kimmy doesn't necessarily consider herself to be or not to be a feminist, though I suppose she is one by definition.

Me, on the other hand, I kind of fall in the middle when it comes to femininity. I have some cute, feminine clothes, and I have my moments, but not all of my behaviors nor interests are considered to be traditionally 'feminine'. Amanda has so much poise and grace, she even curtsies when she's wearing a skirt. I have no idea where she learned it, it must have been self-taught. I'm so much clumsier than her, and I don't have the ladylike etiquette that she does, even though I try.

Lilac is far worse than me when it comes to ladylike etiquette, but I know she tries her best whenever she's at one of her cello recitals. She doesn't always wear dresses or skirts, but the few that she does have are really nice. They're all shades of purple, which is her favorite color. The ones that she wears to her recitals is lavender, her favorite shade, with straps. She's getting better at wearing the shoes that go with it, which are black sandal-like heels with lots of straps and even a bow on each one.

As much as we love Kimmy, she can be a bit of an embarrassment. She tries so hard to be ladylike for special occasions like Lilac's recitals, the tea parties that Amanda occasionally throws, or special medical conferences at Caduceus that we have been graciously invited to, but they usually end in no less than a disaster.

I remember the first time that Amanda had dressed Kimmy's extremely dark pink hair up in a nice bun. It didn't look like Kimmy. It didn't suit her personality at all. She usually wears her hair in two spiky pigtails jutting out the sides of her head. The updo was cute, but it wouldn't be long before Kimmy messed it up.

It's hard enough to get her to sit with her legs or ankles crossed, let alone with good posture. Kimmy's favorite sitting positions include sitting backwards in a chair, or sitting in a squatting-sort of position with her hands on her knees. Even though she wears a short skirt most of the time.

Kimmy absolutely loves to roughhouse. Her poor grades, in addition to the countless fights she got into, ended up getting her held back a year when she was in seventh grade.

A fight with Kimmy is not something to take lightly, either. There's something strange about Kimmy that she doesn't really acknowledge, but that the three of us notice in addition to anyone who spends a lot of time with her.

Kimmy borders on the line of superhuman. Not superhuman like the famed Healing Touch, either. This is something different. There was one time when Kimmy was walking around our English classroom barefoot, and she stepped on a pushpin. She slammed her fist down on the nearest desk as she cried out in pain, and I couldn't believe my eyes, but the desk had cracked a bit.

Word of Kimmy's incredible strength and stamina spread throughout the middle school after just the first few fights that she got into. Because of this, she could never find someone to arm wrestle with her. I remember there was another time when we were at an older park in Angeles Bay, sitting at an old, rotting picnic table. After about ten minutes of trying, Kimmy finally convinced Lilac to arm wrestle with her. I know that the table was rotting, but I don't think that's a proper explanation for the fact that it broke down the middle when Kimmy won.

Amanda and I's jaws both had dropped when the table broke and we all slid forward, save for Lilac. She had the unfortunate fate of falling in between the break, with Kimmy still powerfully grasping her hand.

None of us ever let Kimmy talk us into any sort of sparring with her after that.

By the time the three of us were thirteen and Kimmy was fourteen, we were just old enough to be candy stripers for Caduceus. Caduceus didn't even have a volunteer program until Leslie begged Director Hoffman, as Caduceus isn't a regular hospital. It's not even open to the general public.

The director agreed and we had planned to start after the last one of us had our thirteenth birthday. However, that same year, 2021, another crisis swept the world.

Just three short years after GUILT had terrorized the world, people that had formerly been infected with GUILT fell ill with strange symptoms that Caduceus dubbed "Post-GUILT Syndrome" or "PGS". No one was entirely sure if these symptoms were a result of the GUILT infection or the treatments used to cure GUILT, but it was most likely the former.

Kimmy and I watched helpless as Amanda and Lilac, even Yvonne, fell ill once more.

"Hey, maybe this whole "medicine" thing is important after all.." I remember Kimmy whispering in a rare display of fear as we watched our best friends fall to their knees in agony.

I remember Leslie telling me that Derek and Angie had been away in Africa for the past few months, where they were staying in a refugee camp located in the Republic of Costigar. There, they had been providing basic healthcare to the community as well as being on the lookout for an infectious disease that had been reported.

But as soon as word got to them about Post-GUILT Syndrome, the director demanded that they return immediately. To our surprise, they returned with a young surgeon native to Costigar.

That surgeon was Adel Tulba, and he was a beautiful man. His hair was shoulder length in a dark green, a lot like Leslie's. But his was a lot more poofy like Amanda's hair, and it flowed in the wind a lot. For the most part, I think his eyes were brown. But there were times when they were a lovely shade of red. From what I remember, the reason he was brought to the states was because Derek saw a lot of potential in him, and recommended him for an apprenticeship-sort of program being held by Caduceus.

We were supposed to start our volunteer program until we all turned 14, but circumstances allowed us to become candy stripers a bit earlier than that. Caduceus became severely understaffed, as many employees were recruited to this new organization called the "Hands of Asclepius" or "HOA".

Starting off, it was actually Kimmy and I that were the candy stripers. Amanda and Lilac were forbidden from engaging while they recuperated from their bouts of PGS.

Kimmy never showed interest in medicine, and we always thought that was for the best. When the director himself asked if Kimmy would volunteer with me, I was floored. How could he ask that at a time like this, when there are already so many things going wrong? I guess he saw something in her that no one else did, because Kimmy took to volunteering well above my expectations.

Not long after Post-GUILT Syndrome showed up, a couple of strains of regular GUILT came back, too. Except these strains were mutated, and more severe. The strains that came back were Kyriaki, Tetarti, and Pempti. Not only that, but a few, even i _newer/i_ strains of GUILT showed up. They were dubbed Neo-GUILT, and were manufactured as elixirs of sorts by the pharmaceutical company that had recently partnered with Caduceus. I think the HOA was involved, too?

I don't remember a lot of the details. I was too focused on my work. That, and it was also around the time that dad went AWOL.

After Yvonne's 18th birthday, dad mysteriously vanished one day while no one was home. He took very few, if any, of his belongings with him. All he left was an envelope.

In the letter, he explained that he was going to find mom and bring her home. He said that the check included was for us to live on, because he wasn't sure how long he was going to take.

Yvonne cried into her hands and hid in her room for days. Dad was never found.

I'm fourteen now. The year is 2022. Yvonne and I have been living almost alone for a year now. Leslie is still regularly involved in my life and gives Yvonne tips on how to adult. Everything's gone back to normal for the most part.

I don't know why I had an urge to write out my life's events up until now. I have the feeling that something big is going to happen. Who knows when I'll ever write more, since I don't know when

Big things happened. It's been a long time since I've touched this. I'm going to write everything out so that no one ever forgets. Someone with a talent in literature is going to help me with my writing. He's probably going to help me fix up what I've already written to make it sound more effective. This is mostly just an author's note.

 _Hera_


	4. Chapter 2

_"Man crawls on the earth like vermin, only breeding and fighting for all eternity. Yet you dare judge them... You, who lost the ability to die." -Adam_

 _"What's that even supposed to mean!?" -Derek Stiles_

 _"No...I have to believe that all of us were born with a purpose." -Naomi Kimishima_

 _ **MANKIND'S SECOND GUILT**_

I always thought that the day that changed my life was the day when the tsunami hit. It never occurred to me that anything could be more significant than that.

Just like August 3rd, that day started out like any other. It was a Friday evening. I remember, because the sun was already setting the last time that I had looked out the windows at Caduceus. Amanda and Lilac had already gone home, but I had stayed behind to help Leslie change the linen.

"Would you like me to drive you home?" Leslie offered, fluffing the pillow she had just slid a clean case onto.

"No, that's okay." I answered, my hands running along the edge of the laundry cart we had brought into the room. "Kimmy's going to walk me home. We decided to have a sleepover."

The greenette giggled. "When I was your age, we called those "slumber parties". Isn't that silly?"

"I don't think so." I smiled, gently pulling the cart back and forth. "It sounds prettier that way."

"Prettier, huh?" Leslie smiled, straightening the pillows on the back of the hospital bed. "I guess it does!"

I nodded. "Amanda likes to call them that sometimes, you know how she is. She likes pretty language." At the same time, there were times when I did, too. It definitely makes me feel more feminine, but it always seems so out of character when I use language like that. It's more appropriate when Amanda does, because she has the grace and poise to pull it off. "I should probably wait outside so Kimmy doesn't wander around and accidentally break something."

"That's probably for the best." Leslie turned and looked over her shoulder at the window, as if to check for Kimmy. "I'll finish up here. Text me when you get home, okay?" The nurse smiled. She knew I would be safe if Kimmy was with me, but it never hurt to be sure.

"Okay! I will." I waved to Leslie before hurrying out of the room and checking my phone on the way to the elevator.

" _ **LEFT A LITTLE LATE. I NEEDED TO GO FOR A RUN ANYWAYS!"**_ Was the push-notification for a text message I had gotten from Kimmy. At least, that's what it would have said if it weren't riddled with typos.

" _She probably wrote it while she was running."_ I thought to myself as I stepped into the elevator and pushed the button to go down to the lobby.

During the brief elevator ride, I thought of a scenario where Kimmy wasn't looking where she was going and accidentally ran into something, anything. A mailbox, a lamp post, a car, and denting it. I giggled.

It was dark by the time I stepped outside, and I shivered a bit. In the distance I could hear heels clicking along the pavement, and I knew Kimmy was close. Phone still in hand, I hugged myself gently and headed towards the closest streetlight.

I remember my face heating up when I saw how Kimmy was bouncing in her latex outfit, and I immediately averted my eyes and pulled out my phone.

"Hey.. Hera!" Kimmy panted once she finally came to a stop, her hands on her hips. "Listen! Sleepovers are fun and all, but I know something way cooler we can do tonight!"

"Huh?" I looked up, holding my phone down by my side. "What's that?"

"You know that guy I've been hanging out with, right? Sting McCreary?" She smiled, shifting her weight from one boot to another.

"He's the kid that doesn't wear a real shirt, right?" I asked. Sting wasn't the most popular boy in school, but he wasn't unheard of, either. He was one of those people whose name you recognize.

"Yeah, get this!" Kimmy held her hands up excitedly. "He invited me to a little get-together at his house tonight and said I could bring a friend along!"

"A get together?" I crossed my arms gently. "Ah, Kimmy.. How many people are going to be there?" I didn't like big crowds, and the thought of being around a lot of "popular" kids from school made me uncomfortable.

"Well.." Kimmy held her chin in her hands. "There's Sting, his two friends and their dogs, and us.. So that makes eight!"

I held my hand to my mouth and laughed a bit that Kimmy had included the dogs. It was cute. "Okay, that doesn't sound bad. Do you know what kind of dogs?" I began to walk in the direction Kimmy had come from, expecting her to lead the way.

"Ehh.." Kimmy scratched her chin a bit and looked up and she walked alongside me, gradually leading in front. "Sting's dog.. I think her name is Dixie. She's one of those breeds everyone thinks is dangerous but they're not? A uh.. A pimple?"

I almost choked, having been caught off guard. It shouldn't have shocked me, this was nothing unusual for Kimmy. "Do you.. Do you mean a pitbull?" I covered my mouth, trying not to laugh.

"Oh! Yeah! That's totally what it is!" Kimmy stretched, then crossed her arms behind her head.

I lowered my hand and snickered a little bit before sighing contently. "Oh, Kimmy.. Where does Sting live, anyways?"

"Well I remember how to get there, but I don't really remember the directions, y'know?" Kimmy and I were a lot alike in that way. We can recognize a place, but can't necessarily give you directions. "I used the GPS on my phone the first time I went there. I think his house is on Rocky Way?"

I furrowed my brow a bit. "Isn't that the "dangerous" neighborhood everyone talks about?"

"Ehhh.." Kimmy rolled her eyes a bit. "Yeah, that's the one they talk about, but it's not _really_ that dangerous. It's not like criminal activity happens there on a regular basis. Besides! You don't need to worry, you have me." She gave a cheesy grin.

"You're right." I looked down and smiled softly. With Kimmy around, I had no reason to be scared or worry about my safety. It was because of her company that I wasn't afraid to walk the city streets at night. "Hey, what have you and Sting been doing together, anyways?"

"He asked me to teach him how I do hand-to-hand combat and in exchange he's taken me to the shooting range to shoot his guns!" Kimmy told me. In most of the counties around here, teenagers can both conceal and open-carry guns with parental permission and completion of a safety and proper-use course. Very few gun-related crimes are committed by teenagers.

"Are either of you good at it?" I asked as I followed Kimmy up to a house. I was paying so little attention to our surroundings that I didn't even notice when we had passed through a gate in the fence to get up to the porch.

"I'm not so great at aiming, but Sting's getting better at combat. I still beat him every time, though!" Kimmy boasted as she rang the doorbell. Immediately, the deep bellows of several dogs could be heard.

There was a "Hey, back up. You know better." before Sting McCreary opened the door. Sting and his friends were definitely some of the cuter boys at school. At least, that's what I thought. Sting had crimson eyes and messy, black hair that he had worn up in a ponytail that night. I wasn't joking about Sting not wearing a real shirt. He had this black, man-version of a tube top to cover his pectorals and a black fishnet top over that. Along with that, he had white dress pants and black shoes to match. Sting was a bit taller tha Kimmy, but not by much.

"You brought a nurse?" Sting teased with a grin. "Shortstop might need her. He's been complaining about a stomachache."

"No, I'm fine." Another cute boy, Jacques "Shortstop" Swanson, came to the door and took hold of the rottweiler that was trying to squeeze its way through the door. "I don't know why you insisted I bring him." The blonde said, pulling the dog from the doorway. "You know he's not well-behaved."

"Even dogs who can't behave need friends." Sting said, motioning for us to come inside.

I gingerly stepped inside after Kimmy, nodding my thanks to Sting for holding the door.

The living room was small and cozy. I suspected that it wasn't the only one in the house. There were three dogs. The pitbull, who Kimmy said was named Dixie, the rottweiler, and a German shepherd, who was laying on the floor peacefully with his head in between his paws.

I sat on the edge of one of the sofas while Sting walked over to the pool table on the other side of the room.

"So, Hera, right?" Sting asked as he grabbed a pool stick that was leaning up against the wall. "You want to be a nurse?"

"A surgeon." I said quickly, and the raven haired teenager blushed in embarrassment.

The cutest boy of the all was a brunette named Elliot Van Wieran, but he mostly went by the nickname "Little Monster". He shook his head a bit in disappointment from where he was standing near the pool table. "Sting, you can't just invite ladies over and then offer them nothing to do. Would either of you ladies like to play pool?" He smiled softly in our direction.

I immediately blushed and wrung my hands together shyly. Did one of the cutest boys in school just refer to me as a lady?

"I-I'm okay!" I said, but Kimmy sprung at the opportunity.

"Sign me up!"

"Here," Little Monster walked over to us, carefully offering Kimmy his pool stick. "You can take my place. I'd like to keep Hera company."

"Yeah, alright!" Kimmy stood up and headed to the pool table where the other boys were.

Little Monster sat perpendicular to me, our knees almost touching.

"So, do you volunteer at Hope Hospital?" He smiled, referring to my red-striped dress and nursing hat.

"Yes!" I answered a little too quickly. "I mean.. No. I volunteer at Caduceus."

"Wow." His eyes widened a bit, clearly impressed. "Not many people our age are familiar with Caduceus."

I sat up straight in attempts to practice the ladylike posture that Amanda would use. "But you are."

"I am." Little Monster nodded. "My sister Shelby was admitted there last year, as well as a few years ago."

"She had GUILT then." I deduced based on the timeline he provided.

"I believe so." The brunette grinned sheepishly. "I didn't really follow it very well. I'm sure you do, though." He looked at me genuinely. "I respect that."

My heart felt like it was on fire and I could barely keep my composure. Did this boy, who I believed to be the cutest and sweetest in the whole school, really just compliment me?

"I-I'm glad you think so!" I smiled and looked down, cupping my hands in my lap around my phone. "Not many people our age think that.."

"That's because they don't know what matters." Little Monster leaned forward, gently putting a hand on the shoulder of my uniform. "Those of us who have to keep a close eye on our health appreciate places like Caduceus."

I felt my shoulder tinglings warmly where the brunette had touched me. "I-If you don't mind me asking," I began. "Do you have health issues that you have to keep an eye on?"

"I do." He nodded. "I have hemophilia. You know what that is, right?"

I nodded. If there was anything I was remotely knowledgeable of, it was medicine. "Your blood doesn't clot normally."

Kimmy suddenly lifted her head from where she was leaning over the pool table. "Hera, you like weird diseases! Shortstop-"

The amaranth headed girl was suddenly cut off as she found a pool stick centimeters from her nose. The person wielding it, the blonde in question.

"That's enough. It's not your information to share." He pulled the stick away delicately before lining it up to take a shot.

I was curious, very curious, as to what it was that Kimmy was going to say, but knew that it wasn't my business. What sort of "weird" disease could it have been? While I was lost in my train of thought, the blonde had come over.

"You can have a turn again. I'm not feeling well." Shortstop held his pool stick out to Little Monster.

"Please excuse me." Little Monster smiled and stood up, gently taking the pool stick and heading over to the other side of the room. While Shortstop took the brunette's spot on the couch, the rottweiler bounded over.

"Not now," The blonde said as the obviously male dog tried to stand up against him. "I don't feel great." He gently pushed the dog back down as he lowered himself onto the couch.

"Is there something I can do to help?" I asked softly, turning my body towards him as the dog rested his chin on my knees.

"No, that's alright." He began when his eyes suddenly fell on the dog trying to shove its snout in between my legs. "Hey!" He said sharply, immediately reaching for the dog's collar. "Typhon."

I perked up almost instantly. "Is that his name?" I crossed my legs in attempt to prevent another sniffing incident.

"Yes, it is." The blonde affirmed, letting go of the beast.

"It's a good name, but I don't know if he quite lives up to it." I grinned, referring to the fact that "Typhon" was the name of the most prominent monster in Greek Mythology.

"I suppose so." Shortstop responded, suggesting that he was also familiar with the mythological creature. "I wasn't the one that-"

I jumped as a loud bellow came from one of the boys on the other side of the room. Turning, I saw that Little Monster was hunched over with his hands over his face.

"Aww, man! I'm so sorry, I didn't mean it!" Kimmy cried out, crowding around the brunette along with Sting.

"What happened?" I asked as I hurried over, joining the cluster around the wounded teenager.

"I was lining up my stick and I accidentally nailed him in the face!" Kimmy exclaimed.

"It's bleeding," Little Monster mumbled, a hint of panic in his voice.

"Bleeding?" I tried not to sound alarmed for his sake, but I knew the answer to the question as blood rapidly dropped from in between his fingers.

"Shit!" Sting brought the wastebasket over for the blood to fall into before running off somewhere else in the house.

LIttle Monster knelt before the waste basket, its contents quickly becoming covered in the wet, crimson fluid. KImmy was apologizing almost as profusely as the brunette was bleeding.

The German Shepherd had stood up and was barking in the brunette's direction, as if to warm us that his life was in danger.

But we already knew that. We all did.

I knew right away when I turned to the sound of Shortstop's voice that he was on the phone calling 911, and that we would have to act quickly before professional help arrived.

Sting came back alone, a roll of paper towels in hand. I expected him to return with his parents. Where were they? I watched as the raven haired teenager ripped off several sheets of towels before wadding them up and holding them to his friend's nose.

The blood soaked through in a matter of seconds.

I knew that there was no point in asking Little Monster to let me see his nose. There would have been nothing to see except for blood gushing at an even faster rate.

I had half a mind to take off my apron and hold that to the brunette's nose, but the effort would have been futile. It wouldn't save his life. It would be soaked through instantly.

By now, even Sting was pinching Little Monster's nose, but to no avail. It barely made a difference, if at all. The blood continued to fall onto the soaked contents of the waste basket, and the brunette was getting paler by the minute.

It would still be awhile before help arrived.

With my heart racing, I added my hands to the brunette's face.

Little Monster began to slump forward a bit, "I really appreciate.. What you guys are trying to do." He smiled weakly, and I could tell that he was drifting towards the edge of consciousness.

Kimmy was too slow to grab the brunette as he slumped forward, knocking both me and the wastebasket over.

I lay beneath the other teenager, my hands trembling under his throbbing nose as his blood quickly soaked through my candy striped dress. My awareness of what was happening in the room around me became hazy once the burning in my chest started. It was unlike anything I had ever felt before. I'd never seen a light so blindingly bright, either.

For a long while, I saw nothing but blackness until there was a man with orangey red hair and palatinate blue eyes who filled my view, accompanied by the sound of Leslie's voice in the distance.

"Hera? Hera!"

The visions of the man vanished as I sat upright in a panic, checking my surroundings.

Leslie gazed at me with a concerned expression, crouching down to be at my level. Glancing around, I could tell we were in one of Caduceus' hospital rooms.

Once I remembered about Little Monster, I tried to get up, only to feel a tug on my right arm and a dull pain in my head and chest.

"Hera, it's okay," Leslie began, putting a hand on my forehead to estimate my temperature. "Everything is fine now. He's safe. You're safe."

"Why wouldn't I be safe?" I asked as I looked over at my right arm to see an IV in it. "Wha.. What the-"

"You fainted. "Leslie explained, running her fingers through my bangs. "Kimmy told the paramedics to bring you two here."

"Fainted.." I repeated, gazing down to see that I was not in my candy striper uniform, but a Caduceus hospital gown.

"It was probably just from stress, but we wanted to be cautious anyway." The greenette explained. "You should rest for awhile."

I leaned back in the bed, gazing at the IV in my arm as Kimmy hurried over to my left beside.

"Hera, it was weird!" Kimmy gripped the edge of the bed so hard that her knuckles began to turn white. "Right before you passed out, there was this flash of light! And after that, Little Monster's nose stopped bleeding!"

I yawned and nodded, blindly going along with what Kimmy was saying until it hit me. "..Wait.. You saw that light, too? And his nose stopped bleeding?"

"Yeah, we all saw it." Kimmy nodded. "It was freaky."

"A bright light!" Leslie repeated with a grin. "That's something you don't see everyday. Or maybe…" Leslie looked up and to the right, touching her index finger to her cheek. Before I could ask Leslie "Or maybe what?". Her pager went off. "Oh! That's Dr. Chase. I have to go." The nurse gently cupped my face in her hands and kissed my forehead before leaving Kimmy and I alone together.

"You had me really worried." Kimmy told me as a concerned expression took over her face. "We didn't even know what happened to you. The dogs all started barking like crazy after you passed out. Bear even growled a bit."

"Bear?" I asked, struggling to retrieve the dogs from my hazy memory.

"Yeah! Little Monster's German heifer!" She said very matter-of-factly.

I held my left hand to my mouth and giggled. "Kimmy, it was a German Shepherd, not a heifer."

"Oh.. Well, you knew what I meant!" Kimmy grinned, putting her hands on her hips.

"Yeah, I did." I smiled, nodding. "How is Little Monster doing, anyways?"

Kimmy shrugged. "I've been with you the whole time. I remember them saying he'd need blood during ambulance ride, but otherwise it sounded like he was going to be okay. I haven't heard any bad news. Man, do I feel awful."

"I'm sure he forgives you." I gently touched Kimmy's arm. "You didn't mean it. Don't you think he knows how sorry you are?"

"You're right." Kimmy perked up. "He isn't the kind of guy to hold a grudge."

I smiled softly before blushing darkly. I had completely forgotten that his blood had ended up on me. "So, uh.. Where did my uniform go?"

"Leslie took it away to deep clean it, Didn't want you to get sick or have it stain." Kimmy crossed her arms behind her head.

I smiled softly. "Leslie worries a lot, even if she doesn't show it. I'm sure I won't get sick."

"No kidding." Kimmy stretched. "Even I get sick more often than you do. You like, never get sick."

"What time is it?" I asked, stretching lightly.

"About two in the morning." KImmy yawned, sliding into a nearby chair.

"Well, I don't see why we can't still have our sleepover." I smiled.

"Yeah, you're right!" Kimmy jumped up, suddenly climbing over the bed railing. Although I was a bit surprised, I didn't have to ask what she was doing. She wanted to sleep in the bed with me.

"Goodnight, Kimmy." I told her as I rolled over onto my right side.

"Night." She yawned, her back to mine. "Hopefully we can do something fun tomorrow."

"Wakey, wakey!" I heard Leslie's voice in my ear as someone shook me. "It's time for eggs and bakey!"

"Mmm.. Five more minutes.." I mumbled, shifting comfortably under the warm hospital blankets.

"If you wait, Kimmy might eat your share!" Leslie teased.

"My share?" I mumbled tiredly.

"Hera, wake up!" Kimmy mumbled around something in her mouth. "This bacon is so good!" I felt her jiggling my arm.

"Save some for me.." I murmured something along those lines.

"I can't, it's too good!" Kimmy shook me more roughly. "It's the crispy kind that you like!"

To this day, I'm still unsure if she said those things simply because they were true, or if she knew it would get me up and I just underestimated her.

As I tried to sit up, I felt a sharp pain in my chest. "Ow.." I breathed in, tensing up.

"What's wrong?" Kimmy turned towards me, smacking egg around in her mouth.

"My chest hurts." I told her, slowly trying to sit up with my teeth clenched. Kimmy held a crispy piece of bacon out to me as I reached her level.

"Thanks," I said, gently taking the bacon from her and biting into it.

"You never complain about anything hurting." Kimmy said as she leaned over her breakfast tray, bringing a yolk covered piece of over-easy egg to her mouth.

"I do if I stub my toe or hit my humorous." I told her. "But in terms of abdominal pain and stuff, it almost never happens." It was true. I rarely experienced cramps or anything that hurt enough to be worth taking medicine for. "You don't usually complain about that sort of thing either, Kimmy."

Kimmy stretched an arm up, wrapping the other around it. "That's because I usually feel the good kind of burn from exercise and stuff!"

"That's true." I responded as I finished the last bit of bacon.

"Exercise can really help with pain, you know!" Kimmy told me, stretching her legs under the breakfast table.

"If you have a good attitude about it." I scoffed a bit, working on my eggs.

KImmy relaxed her arms. "Oh, yeah, I forgot that you don't agree with a lot of the stuff that the gym teacher at school says. Sorry."

I shrugged my shoulder as I finished up my eggs. "Exercise can be healing for some people, but definitely not everyone like he implies."

"Are you all done eating?" I turned to the sound of Leslie's voice, who stood smiling in the doorway. "Elliot's been asking for you!"

I felt a pang in my chest, my face heating up. "H-Huh? He has?" I wrung my hands together in nervousness and anticipation.

"Yes!" Leslie beamed. "He says he wants to thank the girl who saved his life."

My chest tensed up again. Did this popular and cute boy really want to thank _me?_ "B-But I didn't do anything more than anyone else!" I said quickly. It was true, all I had done was try to stop the bleeding.

"He doesn't seem to think so." Leslie grinned. "Come on, Hera! When will you have another opportunity like this?" The greenette winked.

Leslie was right. She knew as well as me that I've never had much luck with boys. I gulped.

"A-Alright.. But…" I turned to look at the amaranth haired girl over my shoulder. "Kimmy should come with me because.. She wants to apologize."

Kimmy's eyes widened a bit. In truth, I had only said that because I was too afraid to go by myself. However, she took to my suggestion well.

"Yeah, that's right!" Kimmy said, standing up on the bed. She crouched down and lept off, causing the bed to jiggle a bit.

"Let me get this for you." Leslie said, coming over and putting her hands near my arm with the IV in it. I squeezed my eyes shut and turned away as she removed the dressing and slowly began to pull it out.

I heard the crinkle as she began to remove a bandaid from its packaging, placing it on my inner elbow where the IV had been. "There we go.." She said cheerfully. "You can look now."

I hesitated before opening my eyes and turning my head to look down at my arm, which now had a shiny, silvery bandaid on it where the IV had previously been. I still felt a little queasy, but hopefully wouldn't for long.

"Thank you." I said, beginning to get up shakily.

"Hold on!" She smiled, pushing down the railing of the bed so I could more easily get up when I was ready. She sat on the edge of the bed, beginning to lace up the back of my hospital gown so I wouldn't be too exposed.

"We'll get you your clothes back when you get discharged." She promised. "..But I requested to have some labs done just to be safe. We already drew blood for that when you were unconscious so you wouldn't have to be awake for it." Leslie assured me, patting me on the head once she finished with the gown. "We just need to get a urine sample before I take you home, okay?"

I nodded, even though I didn't think the labs would be necessary. I'm sure I just got light headed and that was why I had fainted.

"His room is this way." Leslie helped me to stand up, even though I didn't need it. I wasn't sure if it was because she was genuinely worried for me or if it was out of habit of helping other patients that couldn't get up on their own.

I was lost in thought the whole way to Little Monster's room, thinking about the labs. What if something strange did show up? What would happen then? I smiled and shook my head. No, everything would be okay. I just got light headed in a stressful situation.

I jumped a bit in fear when a squeal suddenly came from Leslie, my train of thought broken.

"Ohh, that is just adorable!" Leslie squealed, bunching her hands into fists excitedly as she gazed down at an adolescent girl standing at Little Monster's beside. The girl had black hair with white stripes up in pigtails, and a gothic dress reminiscent of Victorian fashion. "You must be Elliot's little sister. May I ask where you got your dress?"

The girl blushed shyly, very clearly overwhelmed by Leslie's exuberant personality. "I-It was tailor made. I can give you the web address if you like." She said quickly, eager for the conversation to be over.

"That would be wonderful, thank you!" Leslie grinned, taking a pen and small notepad from her pocket to write down the name of the website that the girl rattled off to her.

An older brunette girl that I had only seen out of the corner of my eye stood up and walked over to the younger girl, putting a hand on her shoulder. "I'll take Emily to the cafeteria." She said to Little Monster, who was most likely her younger brother. "You do what you need to." She took the gothic girl's hand, gently leading her out of the room.

"I'll leave you alone, too." Leslie winked, leaving the room and leaving just Kimmy and I with the brunette Little Monster.

"So, um, are those your sisters?" I guessed, walking over to his bedside.

Little Monster nodded with a smile, sitting up in bed. "Yes, Emily and Shelby. They were worried about me, especially Emily. Our parents are currently out of town, so Shelby drove over to come see me as soon as they got the news."

Kimmy stepped forward, scratching the back of her head. "Look, Little Monster.." She began. "I'm like really, _really_ sorry about what happened. I didn't mean to give you a bloody nose."

Little Monster shook his head, doing the same thing with his left wrist. "There's no need to apologize, Kimmy. I know you didn't mean it, and I forgive you." The smile he gave her was gentle, and it made my heart skip a bit.

Kimmy was oblivious to his charm, balling her hands into fists excitedly. "Alright! Does that mean we're still on for paintball later today?"

The brunette hummed in thought. "I'm still willing to play, but we'll have to check with Sting since he was the one planning it."

"Awesome!" Kimmy put her fists on her hips. "Well, I'm gonna go hit the vending machines. I'll see you two in a few!"'

I giggled a bit as I watched Kimmy go. "I hope that she meant "hit" figuratively and not literally." There was no doubt that the machines would be hurt worse than her if she chose the latter.

"I can tell why Sting likes to hang out with her so much." The brunette smiled. "And I've very much enjoyed her company, too."

I turned my body towards him, holding my hands down in front. "L-Leslie told me there was something you wanted to tell me?" I began a little nervously, wondering how this conversation would go.

"Oh! Yes, I'm sorry for making you wait." The brunette apologized, dipping his head a bit in a gentlemanly manner. He was a lot like a male version of Amanda when it came to manners and etiquette. "I wanted to thank you properly for doing what you did."

I blushed, my heart skipping a beat again. "But I didn't really do anything.." I tried to smile sheepishly.

He smiled, shaking his head. "It didn't stop bleeding until you intervened. I saw a flash of light, and thought it was the end."

I furrowed my brow a bit. That was the second time that someone else mentioned seeing a flash of light. Just what was that?

I looked down at the ground, rubbing the heel of my red ballet flat into the floor a bit. "I-I can't really say that I feel it was me that did anything, but I'll accept your thanks, if that's what you'd like."

"There's one more thing I'd like you to accept to." Little Monster smiled, holding a hand out to me. I came a little closer to him, and he gently took my right hand in his. He squeezed it gently and said "I'd like to take you out to brunch tomorrow to show you my thanks."

My heart immediately froze, staying that way for so long that I wondered if it would ever start beating again. My hand began to shake in his, and I wondered if I was blushing as red as it felt like I was.

 _He just asked me out on a date!"_ I screamed mentally. " _No one's ever asked me out on a date before!"_

"B-brunch? Are you sure?" I tried to ask casually, my heart still frozen. "I don't have any money to-"

He squeezed my hand gently. "No need! I'll pay for everything. May I get your phone number?" He asked, releasing my hand.

My heart finally unfroze and I could feel blood pumping through my body again. "Y-Yeah, just a second.." I grabbed the pen and notepad that were sitting on the nightstand next to his bedside, writing my cell phone number down on it along with my name. "I-Is this okay?" I asked, peeling the note off the pad and handing it to him.

"Yes, it is. Thank you." He smiled. "Will I be seeing you tomorrow? How does eleven sound?"

"Yeah, that would be great." I squeaked. "'I'll be there.. Wherever it is that we're going." I said stupidly.

The brunette smiled. "I'll choose somewhere close to where you live so that you don't have to go too far. I'll send you a text message with the information later."

"Okay! I'll see you later." I said quickly, heading out the door as calmly as my shaking legs could manage before breaking into a sprint as soon as I was out of sight.

I nearly bumped into Leslie as I turned a corner a little too quickly.

"Hera, there you are!" She smiled. "Are you all done talking to Elliot?"

I stared up at Leslie, unsure how to respond. "He asked me out on a date tomorrow." I flat-out said.

"Whaaaat?" Leslie grinned. "Hera, that's wonderful! Oh, I'm so excited!" She squealed, balling her hands into fists.

I grinned sheepishly. "You say that like you're the one going on the date."

"Well, I _am_ excited! Nothing like this has ever happened to you before!" The greenette beamed. "Ooh, I'll have to help you get ready! Here," She handed me a cup with my name on it. "Get the sample and then we'll go to the mall to buy you something cute to wear."

I looked up at Leslie in surprise. "W-We don't have to do that! Little Monster- I mean- Elliot-.. He said he was going to pay for my meal and everything!"

"That's even more reason for me to take you to get something cute!" Leslie beamed. "He seems like such a gentleman for his age,"

I rolled the cup over in my hands, looking down at my name written in sharpie. Based on the handwriting, it was most likely written by Leslie. "I-If you say so, Leslie. But you don't have to."

"I insist!" Leslie grinned. "I'll get you discharged and then I'll be down at the car. I'll let Yvonne know that you're gonna sleep over with me tonight so I can get you ready for tomorrow. Your clothes are waiting for you in the lab bathroom."

My eyes lit up. It had been awhile since I last slept over at Leslie's house. "Yeah, okay! I'll be down in a few!" I hurried around Leslie, heading down the hall to the laboratory restroom.

After I had dropped off the urine sample and changed into my clean uniform, I headed down to the parking lot. I didn't have to go far, because Leslie's blue convertible was parked in the round about waiting for me.

I took my nursing hat off as I approached the car, planning to take it off and secure it somewhere so that it wouldn't blow away, as Leslie had the roof of the convertible down. The car was the same blue as my hair.

As I got in the passenger seat and buckled my seat belt, I added my hat to Leslie's purse that sat between us to join her nursing hat and our phones. Kimmy must have brought my phone from Sting's house and given it to Leslie for safekeeping. I smiled.

"Are you ready?" Leslie asked, not waiting for an answer as she switched the car into drive and pulled out of the round about.

Once we were on the freeway, Leslie turned the radio on for us to listen to while I rested my head on the window sill, my braids and bangs flopping around in the wind.

"So, how did he ask you?" Leslie asked, turning to me briefly as we exited the freeway and approached the mall. I sat upright, facing Leslie as best I could in my seat.

"Well, first, Kimmy apologized for accidentally causing the nosebleed." I relayed. "Then she left to go get some snacks and he just kinda said he wanted to thank me by taking me out to brunch at eleven tomorrow." I shrugged nonchalantly, even though I was on fire inside from the thought of going on a date with Little Monster.

"Aww!" Leslie swooned as she swung the car into the surprisingly empty mall parking lot. "Where did he say he wanted to take you? I'll make sure to drive you there."

"He said he would pick somewhere close to where I live so I wouldn't have go to far, probably because he can't exactly drive over and pick me up himself.

"Well tell him that he can pick whereever he'd like because I'll drive you there."' Leslie smiled, rolling up the roof to the convertible to lock up the car.

"Okay." I said as I got out of the car and stretched. "I'll tell him that whenever he texts me. I gave him my number but didn't get his."

"Aww, why not?" Leslie asked as she got out of the car with her purse, closing the door.

I shrugged. "We both just kind of forgot in the moment." I immediately regretted my choice of words.

"Oooh, in the moment?" Leslie teased, pressing the lock button on her keys. "I'll have to order you one of those dresses like Elliot's sister was wearing. That'll be cute for one of your future dates!"

"F-F-F-Future dates?" I stuttered, blushing darkly as we approached the mall entrance.

"Ooh, I know! You should wear your hair down for the date!" Leslie said as she opened the door. "I'll get some of those cute little claw clips from Sin-Claire's and we can do a cute little twist in the back!"

I sighed inwardly, glad that Leslie had changed the subject at least somewhat. "But Leslie, you know I always need to have my hair in at least one braid!" It was true. Ever since I could remember, my hair had always been braided one way or another. I _never_ wore my hair down, but if I did, I would have to have at least one little miniscule box braid

"Ohh, I know." Leslie said as she entered the mall with me. "It's just that sometimes I wish I could curl your hair, and a braid probably wouldn't look good with that."

I shrugged as we entered the mall's Always 22. "Well, maybe sometime I'll let you do curly pigtails and we can have a little braid hanging down on each side."

"Ooh, that's a good idea!" Leslie squealed, drawing the attention of the employees towards us. "That'll be super cute! We might have to do that for your graduation dance."

"That's right, I forgot all about the dance.." I mumbled as an employee in her twenties came up to us.

"Hi, welcome to Always 22!" She grinned, working on a piece of chewing gum. "How can I help you ladies today?"

Leslie put her left hand on top of my head, ruffling my hair a bit. "This little lady has a date tomorrow. We'd like to buy an outfit for her to wear."

"Aww, congratulations!" The woman smacked her gum around in her mouth, crouching down to my level a bit. I know just the thing."

The woman lead us over to a mannequin wearing a frilly pink blouse and jeans with wooden beads threaded onto them.

"Oooh, Hera, that would look so cute on you!" Leslie beamed, putting her hand on my shoulder before turning to the employee. "How much is it?"

"We're actually having a sale right now," The woman said, pausing to crack a bubble in her gum. "It's thirty dollars for both the top and bottom."

"That's a great deal!" Leslie smiled. "Do you have them in a small?"

"We do!" The woman said, leading Leslie off to the racks where they have both the shirts and the jeans. I stayed where I was, fiddling with a dress on the rack in front of me. Was I really going on a date with one of the cutest boys in school tomorrow?

" _He's just being nice."_ I said to myself mentally." _There probably won't be a second date, but that's okay. I'm happy to going on even one."_ I smiled to myself.

"Hera!" Leslie's voice broke my train of thought. I turned to my left, seeing her at the cash register at the other end of the store. I hurried over.

"Thank you for coming in, I hope it goes well!" The woman with the gum handed Leslie her shopping bag.

"Can you believe what a good deal that was?" Leslie asked me as we left the store. "Only thirty dollars for the set!"

"Isn't thirty dollars kind of expensive for clothes?" I asked, gazing up at Leslie.

"It's not too expensive for two articles of clothing." She stopped in the middle of the mall and pointed to a store across the way. "Do you want to stop into Frosting by Sin-Claire's?"

"I think just Sin-Claire's." I told Leslie. "Their stuff is more cutesy than what Frosting has."

"You think so?" Leslie asked as we walked by Frosting and Cool Keynote. "I guess I can always get one of those satin robes another day."

"Well we can go in if you want." I told Leslie. "I don't mind."

"No, that's okay. It can wait for another day." Leslie smiled. "Besides, I should probably think about whether or not I'd actually use it and make sure it isn't an impulse buy." She giggled. "Oh, look, Sin-Claire's is having a Buy One, Get One Free sale!" Leslie hurried over to the store entrance with her shopping bag hanging from her arm like an overly excited teenager. I giggled.

By the time I made it into the store, Leslie had already picked out a set of small, iridescent, rainbow claw clips.

"Hera, pick out something you wanna get so we can take advantage of the sale." Leslie told me as she oogled over her adorable find.

I nodded and scanned the store. It was empty save for Leslie and I and the woman at the cash register filing her nails. I bypassed the hair accessories since Leslie had already gotten some of those. As I walked alongside the jewelry, something caught my eye. A plain, black, velvet choker.

I took the choker off the rack and looked it over in my hands, running my thumb over its velvet. There was something about how simple it was that drew me in.

"Hera, did you find something?" I heard Leslie call. I turned to see her at the cash register with the mini claw clips already on the counter, waiting to be scanned. I hurried over.

Leslie gazed down at my selection. "A black choker? Aren't we daring today?" She smirked, placing it up on the counter alongside the claw clips.

I blushed and averted my eyes. "I'm old enough to have one of these, right?"

"Of course you are!" Leslie said, patting my head while the cashier wrung up the items. "I didn't mean it in a bad way."

My favorite room in Leslie's house had always been the one with the window sill bed. Not just because of the unusual concept, although that was the main reason why. I also liked that I could keep an eye on my ocean. That way, I didn't have my back to it unless I _literally_ was sleeping with my back to it.

I slid off my red ballets flats, followed by my white leggings I wore under my candy striper uniform. I put these items into one of the drawers on the side of the bed before closing it and climbing under the covers. I gazed up at the navy and white horizontal stripes on the curtains clothing the window sill, and fiddled with the corner within my fingers. After doing this for a minute or two, I pulled the curtains back so that I could gazed out at the beach behind Leslie's beach house.

I gazed out at the cold moonlit waters, feeling a shiver go through my spine in both uneasiness of the ocean and from how cold it looked. I pulled the blankets up closer around me for both security and warmth. As I stared at the ocean intently, I heard the bedroom door creek.

I let go of the curtain, allowing it to conceal the ocean once more as I rolled over onto my back and turned my head to see Suki standing in the doorway of the room.

"Hi, girl." I whispered to her, lowering my hand next to the bed and making a snapping-like motion. The saluki immediately came over, putting her paws up on the bed before jumping up with me.

I smiled inwardly and got comfortable as Suki got in between my legs and the window. Feeling safer with the dog here, I was able to peacefully close my eyes and think about things other than the ocean and its perils. With that, I was able to fall asleep.

I was awoken the next morning by Suki's barking and her licking of my face.

"Go on, Suki! Sick 'er!" I heard Leslie tease from the other side of the room. "Tell her it's time to get up!"

"I don't wanna." I murmured, keeping my eyes squeezed shut.

"If you doooon't, you're going to miss your daaate." Leslie sang.

Immediately, I threw the covers off and climbed out of bed, going over to the closet where Leslie had hung up my new outfit.

"Don't brush your hair when you take your braids out!" Leslie told me from where she was standing in the doorway. "He'll like that nice wavy look it has to it."

"Uh huh." I mumbled, trying to play off my blush as I changed into my new clothes that we had bought the day before.

Leslie smiled, moving out of my way as I moved past her to the guest bathroom in the hallway. "Let me know when you're ready!" Leslie called out, heading downstairs to get ready for work.

"Alright." I called after her, removing my hair ties and unraveling my braids in the bathroom mirror. I shook my head, letting my wavy hair flow and fall around me. I looked hard at my reflection for a few moments before grabbing a strand and braiding into a small braid. Just so I had one.

The shoes that I slipped onto my feet were a pair of platform flip flops that Leslie had bought me that I didn't have an opportunity to wear up until now. I turned around, looking down at myself before going back to the guest room and grabbing my phone from underneath Suki.

I was nervous the whole car ride to the little restaurant. I wondered how I was even going to work up the appetite to eat like this. I didn't have a lot of time to think about it, because it was then that Leslie pulled into one of the few parking spaces at the establishment.

"We're here!" Leslie said as she put the car into park.

I took a deep breath, balling my hands together in my lap nervously before I took another deep breath. "Alright, I'm ready. Bye, Leslie." I said as I climbed out of the car.

"Bye, sweetie!" Leslie said, putting the convertible into reverse and pulling away to head to Caduceus for another day of work.

I tucked a piece of loose hair behind my ear as I entered the little restaurant, the bell on the front door ringing. It was something I didn't have to do often, what with my hair being in braids and all.

"Hera!" I heard that sweet voice call my name, and my heart immediately skipped a beat.

I turned my head to the right to see the brunette sitting at a booth by the window.

I waved at him nervously, coming over and gingerly sitting across from him. "Hi."

"Hi." He chuckled. "I'm glad you made it alright."

"Yeah, me too." I said, setting my cellphone on the tabletop across from his.

"Can I get you two anything to drink?" A waitress came up to us, notebook in hand.

I hadn't even had time to look at the menu yet, and Little Monster was already rattling off some flavor of bubble tea that went right over my head. Then the waitress turned to me. "I, I'll have what he's having!" I said quickly.

"Alright, awesome!" The waitress said, folding her little notebook closed. "I'll get those started for you."

As she walked away, Little Monster leaned closer to me, grinning. "Have you ever had millet porridge before? They have it here, it's amazing!"

"No, I haven't." I answered. "What's millet?"

"What's millet.." The brunette repeated, leaning back in the booth. "You know those florets people give to their pet birds? Yeah, that's millet!"

"Ooh, alright." I hummed, suddenly perking up as I heard my phone vibrate on the tabletop. I ignored it, giving the brunette a smile. The vibrating didn't stop.

It finally got to the point where I could no longer stand to ignore the incessant vibrating of my phone when both Little Monster and I were eyeing at it dance along the table.

"I'm sorry" I mouthed to Little Monster before picking up my phone and holding it to my ear. I didn't even both to check who it was that had been calling and texting me all this time. "Hello?" I asked a little irritably.

"Hera?" My heart immediately skipped a beat upon hearing Leslie's concerned voice. "I know you're on your date, but this is very important. I need you to come back to Caduceus _right away._ "

"W-W-What do you mean?" I asked, meeting Little Monster's concerned gaze momentarily. "Leslie, you're scaring me.." She was never like this. Leslie was always bubbly and happy.

"Your lab results came back," Leslie breathed. "Something was off, so Dr. Niguel took a look at them, and-" My phone beeped two or three times as the call was cut off.

"Leslie?" I squeaked nervously, voice hoarse. I pulled the phone away from my ear and gazed down at it, seeing all the push notifications of previous missed calls and text messages from Leslie telling me that I had to come back to Caduceus right away. I held my phone so tightly that my hand began to turn white.

"Hera?" Little Monster asked with concern, reaching across the table to touch his hand to my left one. "What's wrong?"

"I.. I need to get to Caduceus right away." I gulped nervously, not even trying to hide how scared I was to find out exactly what my lab results yielded.

"We've only ordered drinks so far, I'll pay for those and catch up with you." He told me, squeezing my hand a bit.

"W-What are you saying?" I lowered my voice to a nervous whisper, leaning closer.

"I'm saying that you should start heading there, I'll catch up with you to make sure you get there okay." He looked at me with determination in his light blue eyes.

It looked like our date was going to have to wait.

"A-Alright." I squeezed his hand back, then gently let go as I stood up from the table. I turned to leave, stopping to look over my shoulder. Little Monster was talking to the waitress who had brought the drinks over. Something about if he could actually get the drinks to go, because something came up. I took one last look at him before heading out the restaurant door.

Caduceus wasn't very far away from the restaurant, only four or six blocks. As I waited for the crosswalk to change colors, I couldn't help but wonder what _possibly_ could have been in my lab results. There's never anything wrong with me. Not ever. Was it cancer? No.. The odds of that were too low, and even if it was, it wouldn't be as urgent as Leslie made it out to be. Not in this day and age.

When I came through the doors of Caduceus, Leslie was already waiting for me in the lobby.

"Hera!" She quickly came over to me, bending down to hug me. "Oh, I'm so glad you're here now."

"Leslie, what's going on?" I asked as I hugged her back.

"Hera!" I turned to the sound of Little Monster's voice as he came through Caduceus' front entrance, two drinks in hand. "I'm sorry I took so long, I had them make our drinks to go." He handed to me a plastic cup with a dome lid and a very big straw. "Here's your bubble tea."

"M-Maybe you should hold onto that a little longer." I said as Dr. Niguel came up behind Leslie. "I have a feeling I'm about to get some bad news.. I wouldn't wanna drop it.

"Right, that's a good idea." The brunette gave me a reassuring smile, taking the drink back into his other hand. "Would you like for me to be there with you or would you rather be alone?"

My heart skipped a beat. " _He wants to be there when they give me the bad news! He's so sweet and caring!"_

"Aww, isn't that sweet?" Leslie grinned eagerly. "How lucky you are to have found such a caring young man, Hera!"

Little Monster grinned softly while I just twiddled my thumbs, blushing.

"Alright, let's get this over with." Victor said as he closed the door to the exam room, holding a chart in his hand. "Your lab results indicated an increased white blood cell count, suggesting an infection. But we wouldn't have called you back here so quickly if it were just your everyday infection. We found antigens in your blood that are suspiciously similar to GUILT."

At this moment I was glad that I had given Little Monster my drink to hold, because I surely would have dropped it. "W-What are you saying?" I stuttered, eyeing the black haired doctor. "Are you saying I have GUILT, Dr. Niguel?"

"That's the thing, I don't know for sure." Victor crossed his arms. "There was no chiral reaction confirming a GUILT infection. I had you called back here so we can do a more thorough examination, incase the chirality test yielded a false negative."

"O-Okay." I squeaked, looking down at my hands in my lap.

I flinched as I heard a snapping sound, and looked up to see Victor slapping on a pair of nitrile exam gloves. "Let's get started."

I kept still like a statue as Victor examine my eyes, my ears, my mouth, even my nose. He reported everything as looking fine, so I was hoping that he would confirm everything as just being a false alarm.

"Deep breath," He told me as he put his stethoscope to my chest under my shirt. I did so, and watched nervously as his expression changed. Victor was silent for a moment.

"Do it again."

I did so.

Victor hesitated once more before moving the stethoscope to my back, tapping my shoulder for me to take another deep breath, and I did. He didn't look anymore reassured.

"Leslie, come listen to this." He said, taking a step back to make room for the green haired nurse.

"Alright." Leslie said, standing up from the bench in the exam room and take her stethoscope out of her pocket. Leslie touched it to my chest and listened carefully. She immediately yanked the scope from her ears and stepped back with wide eyes.

"Leslie, what's wrong?" I asked, trembling.

"Hera, there's fluttering and squeaking sounds coming from your lungs.. I've never heard anything like it before."

"Squ-squeaking?" I repeated hoarsely, raising my hands to my chest, uncomfortable with my own body. "What does that mean?" I asked before remembering that Leslie had just said she had never heard such a sound before.

"I want to have some imaging done." Victor said, tapping his fingers along the length of his crossed arm. "I'm thinking a PET scan."

I was officially admitted to Caduceus until further notice. For a few hours, I was not allowed to eat or drink anything except for water to prepare for the PET scan. Leslie took my bubble tea to the refrigerator in the break room so that I could save it for later after the procedure. Little Monster stayed with me the whole time leading up to the scan, and I relayed to him what they had learned so far. He didn't seem disturbed at all that I might have an infectious disease like GUILT. I wasn't sure if that was because his own sister had been through the same thing or if it was just because of the kind of person he is.

When it finally came time to begin the scan, Little Monster was asked to wait in the waiting room with Amanda and Lilac, who had come to Caduceus for a volunteer shift as soon as they heard about my admission.

"Alright, we have to administer the radiotracer now." Leslie told me, running a hand through my bangs. "You'll be inhaling it in a gaseous form." The green haired nurse gently brought an oxygen mask to her face. "It won't hurt at all. Amy had one of these done when she had Deftera a few years ago. She was very brave." Leslie smiled. She was trying to retain her bubbly personality like she did for every other patient in attempts to keep my spirits up, but deep down I knew she was just as scared as I was. What results would the PET scan yield?

The images were beyond anything I could have ever imagined.

I remember Dr. Niguel telling me to sit down before he gave me the bad news. I refused, insisting that I could take the news while standing. That was a lie I told myself in order to be brave.

I should have listened to him.

I fell to my knees so quickly that there almost wasn't time for Little Monster to grab me and stop me from slamming my face into the linoleum floor upon impact. If I listen closely, I can still hear my disgusting sobs drown out Victor's voice as he tells me that the parasite had likely been there since I was a child, as far back as to when I lost my memories.

Was this what my mother had been hiding from me?


	5. Chapter 3

_"For decades, the world's governments have financed the creation of biological weapons. Airborne viruses that calcify the organs of their victims, developed for war. Yet those same governments are surprised when such weapons are used against them. Modern man is the very model of hypocrisy. You glorify the discovery of medicine, yet hide the fact that the same knowledge is used to create disease!" -Adam_

 _"...And you'd rather create new ways for us to die? That's insane!" -Derek Stiles_

 _"...Human history is one of mistakes, but there are those of us who don't want to repeat them!" -Naomi Kimishima_

 _ **MANKIND'S THIRD GUILT**_

For the first few days of my Spring Break, I remained admitted at Caduceus and under Leslie's careful observation. Victor determined that the parasite ailing my body was not, in fact, GUILT, but something very similar. Most likely it was something that had been engineered by Delphi, the same terrorist organization responsible for GUILT.

Since my case was most likely an isolated one from an infection almost a decade ago, there was no reason to alert the public. GUILT wasn't back, Delphi wasn't back. This must have just been a failed disease they attempted to use back when they were most active. At least, that's what we had thought until Caduceus received a strange, cryptic letter..

 _bAt_

 _paybacK_

 _Underworld_

 _Mother core_

 _lUng_

Although no one was able to decipher what the letter was supposed to mean, there were a few things that we were able to get from it. The first and most concerning thing was that this letter was new, and definitely followed Delphi's style.

I remember Victor frantically looking through his lab papers when we realized who the letter was from. "I _aged_ that pathogen. It is _at least_ nine years old." He slammed his hands down on the tabletop that his papers were scattered on.

"Well, yeah, but isn't it possible that the pathogen is old but infected her recently?" Tyler furrowed his brow, concerned at the possibility that Delphi was active for a third time.

"No." Victor said quickly. "The infection is as old as the pathogen is. It's been there, undetected, for a long time." He ran a hand through his hair. "What _doesn't_ make sense is a crisp, new letter reminiscent of Delphi showing up soon after we discovered this thing."

Eventually, the doctors gave up stressing about the possibility of a third coming of Delphi, leaving that to the authorities. Instead, Victor decided to use the letter to his advantage.

"I'm no creative writer, but this is awful." Victor said unapologetically as he gazed down at the sheet of paper for the billionth time. "It looks like it was written by some edgy middle schooler." After a giggle from Leslie, he continued. "But that's besides the point. This pathetic excuse for a poem is obviously about that parasite, and the capital letters all spell out "Akumu", so that's what I'm going to call the disease."

"The disease? Don't you mean the pathogen?" Tyler asked for clarification.

Victor crossed his arms. "If this really is Delphi, then there's bound to be more than just one strain. No, I'm going to go off of the other content in the letter and call the pathogen the "lung bat" or "Akumu core"."

As strange as "lung bat" sounded, it made sense. The words "lung" and "bat" were both in the letter and the pathogen itself, as Victor said, was shaped like "A cheesy superhero chevron" that just so happened to be located in my lungs. The letter also mentioned a mother core of sorts.

"Was that what you wanted to tell me?" I asked Victor from where I was sitting up in my hospital bed.

"Not exactly." He said, arms crossed. "I actually came to tell you that we've arranged for a biopsy to be done so I can examine the "lung bat"."

My heart lurched a bit in anxiety. "W-What? Are you serious?" I stammered. Victor's unchanging expression was not reassuring. "Y-You'll have to get Yvonne's consent first, she's my legal guardian, and-"

"Not anymore." Leslie stepped into the room from behind Victor. "Hera, I have something to tell you, too!"

My heart lurched again. First I was getting surgery and now Yvonne wasn't my legal guardian anymore? This time, however, I was excited. If Yvonne wasn't my guardian anymore, that could only mean one thing.

Leslie leaned down by my hospital bed and took my hands in hers, looking into my eyes. "Hera, a few days ago, Yvonne and I arranged to have custody of you transferred over to me. I was waiting to tell you until things were official, and it was just approved today! Hera, I'm your foster mom now!" Leslie squeezed my hands in excitement, jumping up and down a bit.

I grinned big before burying my face in Leslie in a hug. "Oh, Leslie!" I mumbled through the shoulder of her uniform. "You've been my foster mom this whole time.."

"..Anyways." Victor said almost uncomfortably. "The Chief arranged for Van Den Berg to perform the procedure since it needs to be done ASAP. "

Despite having a doctor's note signed by both Elise Van Den Berg and Victor, my teachers still assigned homework to me over spring break and expected for me to have it complete by the time that I got back. It wouldn't have been so bad if it weren't for the fact that the majority of the work was math and English, two subjects that I weren't particularly good at or motivated for.

Little Monster, however, suggested the perfect tutor.

"Shortstop is great at English, and he's not bad at math, either. I'm sure he'd be willing to help you out!" The brunette grinned.

It was a few days after my operation that I was discharged from Caduceus on the basis that Victor concluded I was basically cured. If Akumu was anything like GUILT, then simply extracting it should be enough to cure it. Spring Break was almost over, and I hadn't made any progress on my English or math homework. Today was the day that Shortstop and I were going to finally tackle it.

I waited outside for Caduceus for him, and was pleasantly surprised that he showed up a few minutes earlier than our planned time.

"You didn't have to be here for another ten minutes." I grinned at the blonde.

"I try to be punctual." He responded, backpack slung over his shoulder. "Let's get started."

"Oh, actually-" I said quickly, feeling nervous. "I was hoping we could, um.." I looked down at my shoes. "I was hoping that maybe we could do this outside? It's such a nice day and-"

"If that's what you want." He responded. "It's kind of warm out, though."

I lifted my head up, observing how he was wearing a long sleeved shirt and black jeans. "Oh!" I cocked my head to the side. "Don't you get hot in that?" We were, after all, in California.

"Come on, let's go." He said, turning as if to walk away.

"Wait, hold on!" I gave chase, holding onto the straps of my backpack. "Where are you going?"

"I know this place in the woods." He said as we walked along the sidewalk. "There's a small stream and a picnic table. It'll be nice."

 _It'll be nice._

I felt a pang in my chest, immediately looking down and probably blushing. "Y-Yeah! You're right."

It had been awhile since I went to the woods at the outskirts of the city. Usually when I went here, it was with Amanda, Lilac, and Kimmy. As Shortstop and I approached our destination, I began to realize that it may have very well been the same spot in the woods that Amanda had brought us to a few times for tea party picnics.

"I've been here before." I smiled as we entered the clearing in the woods. "I like it here."

"I do too," He said, setting his backpack down on the picnic table. "It has a nice, sunlit patch, but also plenty of shade."

Behind the picnic table was a small, clear stream. I sat on the bench with my back to the water, opening my backpack on my lap and pulling out the book that I was assigned to write an essay about.

"Have you decided on a topic for your essay yet?" Shortstop asked as I got out a pencil and my composition book.

I shook my head. "I haven't even finished the book yet."

He slid my book across the table, taking a look at it. Romeo and Juliet.

"Finish it." He said, pulling his phone out to keep him occupied in the meantime.

I huffed a bit, cracking open the book to where I had marked it with a scrap piece of paper.

For ten or so minutes I struggled to read the play. I had only read three or so pages during that time, finding myself at a loss even when reading the translation on the opposite page. I gazed up at Shortstop occasionally. Watching him quietly scrolling on his phone. Once or twice our eyes would meet, and I quickly gazed back down at my book.

"You haven't turned the page in awhile." The blonde said suddenly, not looking up from his phone.

I laid the book down on the tabletop, gazing up at him. "I can't do it. This book doesn't make any sense to me."

He set his phone down, turning towards me. "What passage are you stuck on?" He asked me.

"All of it." I answered back flatly.

"And why do you think that is?"

"Because I just don't _feel_ it. I can't relate."

"Then what _do_ you relate to?"

Instantly, I raised my hand, index finger pointed up at the sky and the trees' canopy. "The Germ Theory of Disease!"

He sweatdropped a bit. "Science isn't my forte so I can't help you with that."

"That's fine!" I said a little too eagerly, standing up with my hands flat on the table. "Because it's my forte!"

"Is that so.." He mumbled, looking off into the distance.

"Uh huh." I beamed, excited to talk about something that I was passionate about. "I know all about medicine! Leslie taught me almost everything and-" My voice trailed off when I saw the blonde sitting on the ground beside the picnic table, arm wrapped around his abdomen uncomfortably.

"What's wrong?" I asked, a little deflated.

"Nothing." He answered, not meeting my gaze.

I leaned over the picnic table, trying to look into his palatinate blue eyes. "Aww, come on. Something's wrong, I can tell by your body language."

He tried to turn away from me. "I just don't feel good."

"Well, is there anything I can do to help?" I pressed. "Like I was saying, I know all about this stuff and I hang around sick people all day, so-"

"No."

I sat back down, turning my nose up. We at in silence for a moment before he suddenly spoke up.

"Tell me about the gastroenterology department at Caduceus."

I perked up a little, surprised but also not since he had his arm around that part of his body.

"We have a great gastroenterology department." I said, looking down at the stream. "Sage is at the head of it, and she's the best endoscopic surgeon that Caduceus has!"

"That's interesting that you call her "Sage."" He commented.

I smiled at the trickling water fondly. "A lot of the staff at Caduceus let you call them by their first name. But in Sage's case, she shares her last name with a lot of other people at Caduceus, since a lot of her sisters and cousins work there, too! She has a really big family in Japan where all the women are doctors."

"What kind of patients does she see?" The blonde inquired.

"What kind of patients does she see?" I thought for a moment, putting my finger to my chin and looking up. "Well, she had a lot of GUILT and Post-GUILT patients, and even treated a few people when the Rosalia Virus was on the east coast.." I gazed back down at him. "But since then things have been quiet, so she's mostly been treating patients that would normally go to regular hospitals for stuff like ulcers. She and her sister in the research department have been looking into autoimmune stuff lately. Does that answer your question?"

"Very much so." He blinked. "Thank you."

I smiled at him, then gazed back down at my book and tapped my fingernails against its hard cover in boredom.

"Listen,"

I lifted my head to see the blonde staring at me intently. "If you can introduce me to Sage, then I'll speak to your English instructor and see if he won't let you write a paper on that Germ Theory of yours."

My syrupy eyes widened. "Really, you would do that for me?"

"If you help me out, then it would be the right thing to do." He answered.

I stood up from the table and walked over to him, smiling. "I can do a lot more for you than just introduce you to Sage. I just need one piece of information, to help me to help you." I crouched down. "What is it that you wanna see her for?"

He turned to me, gazing deep into my eyes for what seemed like an eternity. I searched his blue eyes for something, anything, that would hint at what he was preparing to tell me.

"I have Crohn's Disease," He began, looking at me dead in the eye. "We've never been able to find a way to put it into remission or reduce the intensity of my flare-ups."

My eyes softened in sympathy. Although HIV/AIDS, cancer, and even GUILT had been effectively cured, many autoimmune diseases such as Crohn's remained far from any sort of breakthrough.

"I'm sorry." I whispered. "I wouldn't have guessed at all."

"So you don't know anything about it?" He asked, his tone hinting at an irritated disappointment.

"Oh no, I know a lot about it!" I said quickly, crawling closer to him. "It's just that you aren't part of the most commonly affected demographic, so I-"

I froze as a startling sound flowed into my ears. After taking a few moments to process it, I realized that it was the sound of sirens back in the city. I thought nothing of it at first. It was probably just a police chase or something. Shortstop suddenly slid his phone out of his pocket, furrowing his brow as he gazed down at the screen.

"What's wrong?" I asked, mimicking his expression.

"It's from Sting," He began, turning the screen towards me so that I could see. "He said that the school was just attacked."

"The school?" I repeated, reading the text that Sting had sent to the blonde. "But.. Why would anyone want to attack the school?" I bit my lip. I knew the answer to that question. It was for the sake of terrorism . I rephrased my question. "Why would anyone want to attack the school during Spring Break?"

"My guess is that they wanted to hurt the school, but not anyone in it." He said, drawing his phone back, typing a reply to Sting. He paused, gazing up at me. "That or they're stupid."

I giggled, raising my hand to my mouth as the blonde went back to typing out his text.

"So what do we do now?" I asked. "The school will probably be closed for awhile."

"Well, I can email your instructor and ask him to change your assignment, but you should try to finish reading Romeo and Juliet incase that doesn't work out."

"Yeah, but what do we do now?" I leaned closer to him. "I doubt you wanna just sit here and watch me read for the next hour."

"What did you have in mind?" He blinked.

I put my hand on the picnic table, yanking myself up. I leaned, extending a hand down to him. "Come back to Caduceus with me! I'll take you to meet Sage so we can work on a cure for your Crohn's."

Time almost seemed to stand still. A small breeze passed by, billowing both my bangs and his shoulder length blonde hair. I felt the sun beating down behind me, peeking over my shoulder to light up and sparkle Shortstop' eyes and that silvery metallic hardhat of his.

In one fluid motion, he grasped my hand and said. "I will."

"Are you sure you don't get hot in that?" I gestured to his attire during our walk back to Caduceus.

"I never said _that_." He responded, hands in his pockets.

"Hmm?" I blinked, gazing up at him. "Well why do you wear it?"

"Why do you wearing leggings under your uniform?" He countered, pointing down at the white, capris-length leggings that I wore under my candy striper dress.

I immediately blushed, averting my eyes and twiddling with my thumbs. "It's, you know.. To keep people from seeing stuff that they shouldn't be seeing."

"There's your answer." He said, not bothering to look at me.

I thought about what he said for the rest of our walk together. What did he mean by that? Did he have something that he didn't want people to see?"

"Sage's office is on the third floor." I said as we approached Caduceus. "So we should look there first." I turned to Shortstop, seeing him propping the door open. I stood there stupidly until we motioned for me to go inside. "Oh!" I stood upright. "Sorry, thank you." I murmured awkwardly, hurrying inside.

"Has no one ever held a door open for you before?" He asked, following after me.

"Not really." I replied sheepishly. "I'm not used to boys doing stuff like that for me. Elliot-I mean- Little Monster, he really took me by surprise on our date."

"I see." He replied plainly as we approached the elevator.

I reached into my apron pocket, taking out my Caduceus ID and scanning it so that the elevator would grant us access. As the doors opened, we stepped inside and I pressed the button for the third floor.

"So.. How come you all have nicknames?" I asked after a moment.

"It was Sting's idea. He thought that Elliot and I needed to have cooler names like him, so he "renamed" us."

"I guess that makes sense.." I said as the elevator lurched somewhat, the doors opening shortly after.

"Her office is this way," I said, exiting the elevator and turning to the left. "Office 313."

I approached the door, knocking on the doorframe. "Dr. Enomoto? Sage? Are you there?"

Peering into the room, one could see that Sage was beautiful.

"Hera, is that you?" The doctor looked up, giving us a glimpse of her crimson orbs and curly eyelashes. "Come in! I'm not busy right now."

"Dr. Enomoto, I'd like you to meet someone." I stepped into the room with Shortstop in tow.

While the two introduced themselves to each other, I was taken in by Sage's hair. It was a minty green in a total of four pigtails. There was a small one on each side of the top of her head, held in place by hair ties with two crimson beads each. Her most striking feature was easily her low hanging pigtails in crescent shapes that faced inward.

"Oh, Hera, I almost forgot!" Sage said suddenly, breaking my train of thought. "Leslie and R&D were looking for you. They spoke to Professor Blackwell."

I furrowed my brow. "Huh? Angie's dad?"

Sage nodded. "You should hurry along. In the meantime, I'm going to talk to your friend here and see what we can do."

"Right." I nodded with a smile, bringing my fists to my chest. "Shortstop, I'll see you later."

As I headed to the second floor, I thought about why a conversation with the professor had anything to do with me. But the more that I thought about it. The more that it made sense. If I really have had the lung bat all this time, then there's a chance that the professor could know something about the pathogen and how I got infected. Feeling better, I entered to door to R&D.

"Hera," Leslie turned to me as I entered the research department. "I'm glad you're here. With Professor Blackwell's help, Victor discovered some important things about Akumu." The greenette crouched down, taking my hands in hers. "Hera.. You're a Sinner."

" _Hera.. You're a Sinner."_

"What?" I smiled sheepishly. "Leslie, come on.."

"It's true." Victor said with his arms crossed. "Delphi didn't just make you a Sinner for a single strain of Akumu. They made you a Sinner for the whole disease."

"Wh-what?" My brow furrowed. "Are you serious?" Victor and Leslie both nodded, and I began to feel sick to my stomach. "B-But everything's okay now, right? Since it was removed?"

Leslie shook her head. "The reason why we wanted to talk to you was because.. Professor Blackwell said that thing is a part of you.. We need to put it back."

" _We need to put it back."_

I felt my irises shrink when Leslie said that, and my heart skipped a beat. "No.." I began quietly, getting louder. "No, we can't do that! We finally got it out of me! We can't put it back! I- What if it kills me?!"

"We've considered that," Victor answered. "But your chances of dying from not having the bat in you are greater than your chances of dying from the bat itself. And another thing.."

"What?" I trembled, gazing up at the raven haired researcher with tears brimming in my eyes. "What could be worse than what you've already told me?"

Victor gazed at me with intense eyes, not holding anything back. "Akumu is sexually transmittable."

I couldn't hear anything after Victor said that. I couldn't feel the sensation of my knees hitting the linoleum floor of the lab. I couldn't hear my own screams and cries of emotional agony, or feel the tears rolling down my face. I couldn't even feel Leslie embrace me and squeeze me tight in attempt to comfort me. All I could feel was the tightness in my chest, and all I could hear were the voices of boys rejecting me for having a sexually transmittable disease.

"Leslie.." I sobbed. Her name was the first thing that I was able to hear again. "Leslie.. I'm not ever gonna find a partner.. I'm not ever gonna get married.."

"Hera, don't say that.." Leslie squeezed me tight. I was able to feel that. "Lots of people with sexually transmittable diseases are in happy relationships and live normal lives." She rubbed my back soothingly.

"But Leslie.." I protested, tears streaming not my cheeks. "Boys already don't like me. Amanda and Lilac, Kimmy.. There are always boys chasing after them." I buried my face in the nurse's shoulder, my voice becoming hoarse. "Even you, Leslie.. I've seen the way that men look at you."

"I know, Hera.." Leslie rested her chin on the top of my head. "But I promise,. We'll find a way around this, and you'll be a happily married woman one day with lots of babies." She pulled away to look down at me, smiling.

I smiled up at Leslie, wiping my right eye with my fist. "Come on, Leslie.. You're embarrassing me."

"But it's true!" Leslie beamed, beginning to tickle my sides. "And you'll have a lot of time to become a guy magnet before we send you back to school. The school's going to be closed for awhile."

"Leslie, wait!" I cried out, defenseless against the tickle attack. "It.. I don't think.. It works that way!" I breathed in between bouts of laughter. "And how.. How was the school attacked?"

Leslie released me from my giggly prison, resting her hands in her lap. "That's right, no one's told you that yet. The middle school was attacked while you were out with that boy. What did he go by again?" Leslie asked, putting her finger to her chin and averting her eyes. "Shortstop? Anyways, it was a bio-attack. No one was hurt, but the authorities are looking into it. They think it might be the work of a third incarnation of Delphi."

"Delphi is back.." I whispered, gazing at the linoleum in between my knees. "They never really go away, do they?"

"I guess not." Leslie said, a smile still plastered on her face as she stood up, holding a hand out to me. "Are you ready to put the bat back?"

I grabbed Leslie's hand firmly, yanking myself up. "Almost. I.. I'd like to see the bat first." I said, gazing at Leslie, and then to Victor. "Since I'll probably never have another opportunity to look at it with my own eyes."

Victor stared down at me for a moment or two, his arms crossed as usual. "It's this way." He said, heading towards the back of the lab. I gazed up at leslie before we followed after the head of R&D.

Victor lead us to what appeared to be a portable container for transporting lab mice. Instead of mice, however, we saw a set of lungs inside of the container, breathing on their own.

"Doctor, what is this?" I asked, bending over in front of the table that the container was on. "Where's the bat?"

"It's in there." He responded. "Those are just pig lungs being inflated by a machine. We wanted to try to mimic the bat's natural habitat for when we weren't studying it." Victor leaned down in front of the container. "There." He pointed to a folded up, black figure hanging from the bronchial tubing. "She's "sleeping" right now. We believe that's what she looked like all this time in a dormant state."

"She.." I repeated. "It's female?"

Victor nodded. "We figured that out while examining it. I'm honestly surprised that it isn't an intersex organism. The professor said that it's the only one of its kind, meaning that there are no males for it to reproduce with."

I furrowed my brow as I gazed at the sleeping bat, thinking about how it had been doing the same thing inside of me not too long ago. "What else did the professor say about her?"

"A lot." Victor said, picking up the container by its handle. "He actually left a journal for us that explains everything. It should arrive any time now."

"Okay." I said, taking a deep breath, "I'm ready."

When I woke up from the surgery to put the bat back, I wasn't greeted by Lilac or Amanda, Kimmy or Leslie. I was greeted by the boys, Sting, Little Monster, and Shortstop.

"What are you all doing here?" I blinked tiredly.

"We came to see Shortstop and found out that you were in surgery, so we wanted to come see that you were okay." Little Monster smiled softly, kneeling before my hospital bed and taking my hands in his. I blushed.

"I feel weak, but I'll be okay." I tried to smile at the brunette. "They.. They had to put it back." I averted my eyes.

"Put what back? Hera?" Little Monster squeezed my hand in his.

"The parasite." I whispered, not wanting Sting or Shortstop to hear. I knew it was futile. It was possible that they already knew, anyways.

"What?" The brunette whispered, leaning closer to me. "But they just took it out. Why would they put it back?"

I sighed, turning towards all three of the boys. There was no point in trying to hide it from them. I returned my voice to its normal level. "They said that it's a part of me, and that I could die without it."

Understanding where I was going, The brunette leaned away from me, also ceasing to whisper. "But it's a parasite. Isn't it making you sick?"

"The head of the research department said that I'm far more likely to die from _not_ having the pathogen than from having it."

"But how could a parasite be part of you?" The brunette furrowed his brow.

"They didn't say." I shrugged my shoulders weakly. "My guess is that it's a symbiotic relationship, meaning that we help each other to survive."

"Wait, we're talking about a parasite, right?" Sting spoke up. "Is it contagious? Are we going to get it from talking to you?"

"No, I don't think so. It's supposed to be the only one of its kind, but.." I looked down in shame. "They said that it's sexually transmittable."

"O-Oh.." Sting mumbled uncomfortably. "Is.. That how you got it?"

I shook my head, refusing to look up at the boys. "No.. They think that I was infected by terrorists nine years ago."

"Well, then it's not your fault." Sting shrugged. "So it's not like you're dirty or any- Ow!" I saw Shortstop elbow Sting out of the corner of my left eye.

"You're not helping matters." The blonde grumbled.

"He's not wrong to bring that up." I choked back tears. "I do feel dirty."

"Way to go." Shortstop glared at the raven haired boy.

"No, Hera, you're not dirty." The brunette tried to convince me, squeezing my hands again. "Ignore what Sting said."

"I'm trying, but.. There's so much stigma against sexually transmittable disease."

"I know there is." Little Monster told me, smiling softly. "But there's really no reason for you to feel ashamed." He squeezed my hands delicately. "I still like you."

I blushed. "You do?"

The brunette nodded, and the blonde and raven did the same.

I smiled, gazing down. "That makes me feel a lot better." It felt good to know that some boys liked me, even if it was just as friends. Then again… I gazed up at Little Monster.

Every night after my surgery, bats would swarm the window of my hospital room. Some of them just hovered, some dangled from the outer window sill, and others even hit the glass. It got to the point where so many bats were showing up and getting themselves hurt that Director Hoffman called in someone from the local bat sanctuary to come and witness the unusual phenomenon.

"I've never seen anything like this." The woman commented the night she came in. "And you say it's only outside this one particular hospital room?"

"That's correct." Leslie answered the woman. "We moved her to a vacant room the other night, just to see what would happen.. They showed up outside of that room instead."

"This is so strange.." The woman approached the window, looking at all the bats flapping against the glass. "I'm not sure what to tell you. I can stay the night to observe their behavior and collect any that hurt themselves to take back to the sanctuary."

"That would be great, thank you!" Leslie smiled. "Let me know if you need anything to make you more comfortable."

"I will, thank you." The woman smiled as Leslie left the room. She stared at the bats gathered around the window for a moment before turning to me. "So, what's your name?" She smiled. "Are you excited to go home?"

"Oh, I won't really be going home." I told her, sitting up in bed with my hands in my lap. "I'll be back soon enough. I'm actually a candy striper here."

The woman looked a little surprised. "You are?" She chuckled. "A little ironic that you ended up a patient, huh? What are you in for, anyways?"

"Surgery." I said intentionally vaguely.

The woman shook her head, still smiling. "But what kind?"

I turned my head away from her, looking into the hallway. "I can't tell you that."

"Why's that?" Her surprised voice filled my right ear.

"They told me not to." I answered, still gazing into the hallway. "And besides.." I turned back towards the woman. "..You wouldn't believe me anyways."

The woman gasped when I turned towards her, raising a hand to her chest as if to calm a rapid heartbeat. "How did that get in here?" She whispered to no one in particular, coming towards me.

"What are you doing?" I asked frantically, leaning back in the bed as she came closer to me. "How did what get in here?"

"It's alright, just stay still for me." The woman said, crouching down to my level and reaching her gloved hands out towards my left shoulder.

"Stay still? Why should I stay still?" I asked in a panic, squeezing my eyes shut tight in fear of what was on my shoulder and what she was going to do. I felt my heart pounding in my chest as her fingers brushed against the shoulder of my hospital gown.

"Wait.." She suddenly pulled her hands away, and I opened one eye to look at her. She looked confused and a little afraid. "This isn't… This isn't a normal.." She turned to look over her shoulder at the bats gathered outside the window, and then back at me. The bats by the window began to flutter and squeak frantically.

Her eyes suddenly widened and a small gasp escaped her lips, followed by a scream that took me by surprise.

I squeezed my eyes shut and covered my ears with my hands as she raced out of the room into the hallway.

"What's wrong?" I heard Leslie in the hallway when I pulled my hands away from my ears.

"I can't help you with your problem!" I heard the woman say back. "It's that girl! That's not normal! She's not normal!"

 _She's not normal._

That wasn't the first time someone had said something like that about me, but it was the first time someone had ever said it in my presence. Usually it was people talking behind my back, little things that Lilac, Amanda, or Kimmy would pick up and tell me about later.

"Wait, where are you going?!" Leslie cried out, followed by footsteps that gradually got more and more distant.

Leslie stepped into the doorway, quickly hurrying over to me and crouching down to the level of my bed. "Hera, what happened? Are you okay?"

I didn't look at Leslie, I simply looked down at my hands. "She was acting pretty weird. She was trying to touch me and then suddenly freaked out and ran out of the room. But it's for the best."

"Why's that?" Leslie asked in a concerned voice.

"She was pretty nosy." I turned to Leslie. "She wanted to know what I'm here for. I didn't tell her."

Leslie sighed, ruffling the hair on top of my head. "You had me worried. Get some rest, okay?"

"Okay." I nodded as Leslie stood up and began to leave the room once more.

That woman never came back to Caduceus.

"Hera, Hera wake up!" Came Leslie's voice the day that I was to be discharged again. "You got a present from that Little Monster boy!"

I immediately sat up in bed, my heart skipping a beat. I turned to my left to see Leslie holding up a gorgeous dress in pastel colors. My eyes widened. "Is that really from him?"

Leslie smiled and nodded. "He dropped it off along with a card." Leslie reached into her uniform pocket, pulling out a small index card and setting it on my lap.

" _I can't stand the idea of you feeling dirty, so here's something to help you feel beautiful. Call me."_

My chest tightened and I gently ran my fingers over his pen handwriting.

"Oooh, Hera!" Leslie squealed, holding the dress up so I could see. "Look at the print on this dress! It's so you!"

I took a good look at the dress for the first time. It was the same style of dress that Little Monster's sister wore, but as previously mentioned, this one was in pastel colors. The majority of the dress was a pastel yellow with short, puffy sleeves and a square neckline. The chest of the dress had three buttons in a column shaped like pills, and beneath the last pill button was a pastel purple bow. The skirt of the dress had a bell shape to it, and that was where the gorgeous print on the dress could be found.

All over the skirt of the dress were various medical-themed items "cutesified" in pastel colors. There were blue bandages with pink hearts on them, syringes decorated with bows, first-aid kits adorned with angel wings, and even pastel pill bottles.

"He got this for me.." I whispered, gazing at every last detail of the dress.

"I know!" Leslie squealed, folding the dress into a square. "Isn't he the sweetest boyfriend?"

"B-Boyfriend?!" I choked, my chest tightening and face reddening at the sheer thought of being his girlfriend. "L-Leslie, we went on one, incomplete date!"

"Aww, come on, Hera!" Leslie set the folded up dress on the nightstand. "Think about how many times he's come to see you while you've been admitted!"

I cupped my face in my hands, thinking about all of the significant moments we had together. How we came with me and stayed by my side on the day of our date when Victor gave me the bad news, the way he reassured me that he still liked me, and even the little details in the card he wrote.

 _I can't stand the idea of you feeling dirty._

 _Here's something to help you feel beautiful._

 _Call me._

"T-That still doesn't make him my boyfriend!" I said quickly, even though the truth was I would be extremely happy if he were my boyfriend. But I was extremely embarrassed by Leslie insisting that he was.

 _Call me._

"I-I'm going to call him now." I said, delicately reaching over to the nightstand where my phone had been charging last night. I was also hoping that Leslie would take this as a cue to leave so that I could make my phone call in private.

"Alright, I'll come back with your breakfast in a little bit." Leslie winked, heading out of the room.

I reached for my phone. Anyone who didn't know better would have thought that it was an out of date flip phone, but it was actually high-tech. It had the aesthetic of a flip phone while having all the tech of a smart phone. It was very popular among women. Leslie had one the same color as her car, and I think I remember Angie having one in pink. Mine was yellow with a little phone charm of Caduceus' logo hanging down from it.

As I scrolled through my phone contacts, I hesitated. Angie and Dr. Stiles were still at Caduceus Japan, learning from a renowned neurosurgeon. If Delphi really was back again, would that mean that the two of them would come back to Caduceus USA? I selected Little Monster from my phone contacts and listened as the phone began to ring.

Little Monster must have had his phone nearby, as most teens do, because he picked up rather promptly. "Hello, Elliot Van Wieran speaking." He answered cheerfully.

"Hi, it's me, Hera." I smiled into the phone. "This is me calling you like you asked."

"Good morning, Hera!" He greeted. "You're up early. Did you sleep well?"

I giggled a little. "You're up early, too! I did sleep well, thank you.." My eyes fell on the dress, while was still folded nicely on the nightstand. "T-Thank you very much for the dress!" I stammered. "It was a pleasant surprise."

"I'm glad you like it," He told me, and I could tell that he was also smiling on the other end of the phone. "Emily always feels like a princess when she wears lolita, even if she won't admit it. I thought maybe you'd feel the same."

"Lolita?" I blinked, gazing at the dress. "Is that what it's called?"

"That's right," He confirmed, probably nodding his head. "The fashion is called lolita, but that particular dress has elements of another fashion called "menhera". Not only does it have your name in it, but the fashion is all about a cute medical theme that I thought would suit a candy striper like you."

I smiled softly. "I'll have to look into lolita fashion so that I can wear it properly."

"That reminds me, have you ever been paintballing?" He asked. "It's not all that appropriate for a lady, but Kimmy has come with us a few times, and she's enjoyed it. I thought maybe you and your friends would, too."

"I've never been paintballing before! That sounds fun. What do I wear paintballing?"

"We use paint that washes out easily, but I would still choose something that you don't mind getting dirty." He told me.

I nodded. "Alright! I know just what to wear." I told him.

"Are you free today?" He asked. "If so, can you meet me at the edges of the woods at noon? Bring your friends!"

We said our goodbyes and hung up. I hesitated for a moment, then typed a text out to Yvonne telling her that I was going to come over to the house we shared together up until now to pick up some of my things.

"Heeeere's breakfast!" Leslie cheered, re-entering my hospital room with a tray of eggs, bacon, and toast. "So, how did it go?" She asked as she placed the tray on my lap.

"It went good." I smiled, picking up the fork to my right. "He invited me to go paintballing later today. He said I could bring Lilac, Amanda, and Kimmy."

"Ohh, that sounds fun. Try not to exert yourself, okay?" She told me, referring to my surgery a few days ago.

"I won't." I told her as I finished my breakfast. Leslie pulled a pair of scissors out of her uniform pocket, sliding them in between my left wrist and my hospital bracelet, snipping the plastic band off.

"There we go." She said, returning the scissors to her pocket and unhooking me from the devices surrounding my hospital bed. "And it looks like Yvonne just pulled into the parking lot."

I stretched slowly, careful not to stretch my stitches too much. "Alright, I'll head down." I opened the nightstand drawer where my candy striper uniform was folded up neatly. I took my red ballet flats out of the drawer and slipped them onto my feet. I gathered the articles of my uniform and the lolita dress into my arms, unfolding them a bit as they got bunched up in my arms.

"I'll see you later, Leslie." I said as I began to leave the hospital room.

"Okay, have fun!" Leslie called after me.

I approached Yvonne's silver car in the ambulance roundabout, opening the passenger door. "Hi, Yvonne." I said as I got in. "It's been awhile since we've seen each other."

"It has." She answered, pulling off once I had closed the door. "And I guess things are gonna stay that way now that Leslie's going to be taking care of you."

"We'll still see each other," I said, facing my sister. "It just won't be every day."

"Yeah, that's true." She said, speeding up to make it through an intersection as the light turned yellow.

"Leslie told me everything over the phone. I'm sorry."

"Huh, why are you sorry?" I blinked.

"Because if I made sure that you got regular check-ups, they probably would have found that thing a long time ago." She said, referring to the bat.

"I don't blame you, Yvonne." I told her. "You shouldn't of had to be responsible for me, anyways. Dad should have done that."

"I know." Yvonne sighed as she pulled into our driveway. "But Dad isn't here anymore."

"I know." I said as well, looking down at the clothes in my lap before getting out of the car and heading to the front door of the house.

Yvonne came up behind me, unlocking the door.

"Meeow~" Charcoal Kitty greeted, trying to slip out the door as my sister opened it.

"Shoo." I said softly, gently directing him back inside with my foot.

As I stepped inside I noticed that the house smelled better since the last time I was here. Yvonne must have vacuumed or something.

I delicately set my bundle of clothes on the coffee table. I headed to my dorm-sized room, surprised to see that Yvonne had already started to pack my stuff into boxes for me. I went to my dresser, pleased to see that the outfit I was looking for was still in the drawer.

I began to change out of my hospital gown and into a t-shirt with a bleeding heart on it, a denim skirt, and striped stockings. I picked up the box closest to me, carrying it out to the living room. "Thank you for starting to pack for me." I told Yvonne, setting the box down. "Do you want me to start taking these out to the car?"

"Yeah, the car's unlocked." Yvonne told me, eyes glued to her phone. "I'll drop you off at the edge of the woods and then I'll take the boxes over to Leslie's."

"Alright." I nodded, picking up the box and carrying it out to the car.

Within five or so minutes, we loaded all of the boxes that were ready into the car.

It was getting close to noon when Yvonne dropped me off at the edge of the woods. I had texted my friends during the car ride to ask if they would like to participate. Amanda texted back that she was going to be shadowing Leslie that day, but that she might join us some other time. Kimmy and Lilac were both eager to paintball.

Little Monster was the first person the arrive after me. He arrived in a shiny black car driven by his older sister.

"It's good to see you." He grinned, walking towards me as his sister sped off. "That's a good outfit to wear paintballing." He said, gesturing to my attire.

"Oh, thank you." I smiled, looking down at my outfit choice. "I thought it might be a good idea."

Shortstop was the next one to arrive before noon, which was on time. He arrived in a banged up car driven by who I could only assume was his older brother. I could see the rottweiler from the backseat, hanging out the window and borking at us. He seemed to be excited to see Little Monster and I.

"No." The blonde said sternly as the dog stepped onto the center console, trying to force his way into the boy's lap.

As he opened the door, the dog jumped out and bounded towards me. I braced myself, expecting the dog to stand up against me. What he actually did, however, was stick his nose up my skirt.

"He-Hey!" I cried out, blushing darkly. "Don't do that!"

"Typhon!" The blonde snapped, leaping out of the car and racing towards us. "Ugh, you bad dog." He snagged the dog by the collar, pulling him away from my skirt.

"I-Its okay." I stammered, still blushing darkly as I smoothed out the denim. "You didn't tell him to do it."

I watched as the blonde hauled the dog back to the car, lifting him into the passenger seat. "Stay." He said, closing the door and turning back towards us. "I'm sorry about that."

"I-It's okay." I repeated, embarrassed that Typhon had done that to me in front of two cute boys.

The blonde pinched the bridge of his nose as his brother and the dog drove away.

The last to join us were Lilac, Kimmy, and Sting in a carpool about ten minutes late.

"You know "at noon" means be there _before_ noon, right?" Shortstop asked as his raven haired friend stepped out of his mom's car.

Sting shrugged, simply turning and giving his thanks to his mother as she drove off.

"So, how are we going to do teams?" The crimson eyed boy asked.

"I was thinking we could do three teams of two." Little Monster said, setting down and unzipping a duffle bag with very realistic looking guns in it. "How does that sound?" He asked, aiming one at a tree and pulling the trigger.

I winced a bit, forgetting for a moment that it wasn't a real gun. I turned and looked over my shoulder. Lime green paint had splattered onto and was dripping down the trunk of the tree.

"I'd like to have Hera on my team." The brunette grinned.

"O-Okay!" I said, blushing faintly and hurrying over to stand beside him.

"I'm next!" Sting leaned down, picking up a gun of his own. He, too, lined it up with a tree and pulled the trigger to test the color of the paint. This particular gun was loaded with red paintballs. "I want Kimmy on my team."

"Alright!" Kimmy jumped up, fist pumping the air. She headed over to Sting, doing that clasp-sort of handshake that guys will usually do together.

"That leaves you and me." Shortstop said, turning to Lilac with two paintball guns in hand. Lilac was the one to fire the gun at a tree. It contained purple paint.

"Yes!" Lilac pumped her fist. "My favorite color!"

"Everyone grab a pair." Little Monster said, reaching into the duffle back and pulling out a pair of range, rectangular goggles. He quickly slid them over his face. I did the same, followed by everyone else.

While the rest of us were putting our goggles on, Little Monster pulled out his phone, holding it flat in his hand. "Hera and I will go north, Shortstop and Lilac west, and Sting and Kimmy will go east." He said as he gazed down at the compass application on his phone screen. "At 12:30, we'll start hunting each other."

"That's fine with me." Shortstop agreed, turning around and heading to the west with Lilac in tow.

"Alright! Sting, let's get going!" Kimmy cheered, running off in a direction other than east before stopping and turning around in a circle. "Which way's east?"

"This way," Sting said as he came up to Kimmy and spun her around in the right direction, followed by placing a paintball gun in her hands.

When I turned to Little Monster, he was holding a gun out to me.

"T-Thank you!" I said quickly, taking it into my hands. I stumbled under its weight a bit. I expected it to be made out of plastic, but it was heavier than it looked.

"Are you alright?" Little Monster asked, turning his body to face north.

"Yeah!" I said, quickly standing up right and following after him. "It's just that I've never held one of these before, let alone shot one.."

He chuckled, continuing to head north. "You say that like it's a real gun."

"Well, it does look an awful lot like one." I said in my defense.

Little Monster looked at me over his shoulder, smiling. "There's a big difference between paintball guns and real guns. I can show you sometime, if you like."

I blushed, looking down. "Yeah! T-That'd be nice."

As our conversation trailed off, so did my thoughts. What were Little Monster's intentions in all of this? Friendship? A relationship? Something more? I blushed, squeezing my paintball gun tight.

I let out a silent sigh and lifted my head. Out of the corner of my right eye, I saw something white with neon accents. I whipped my head to the side to see long white hair flow behind the trunk of a tree.

"Hey.. Little Monster." I said, stopping in place. "We're the only ones playing, right? Just the six of us?"

"Yeah, why do you ask?" Little Monster asked, stopping and turning to look at me.

I furrowed my brow. "It's just.. I thought that I saw someone covered in paint." I pointed in the direction where I had seen the figure.

Little Monster furrowed his brow, taking a step in the direction I was pointing. "There shouldn't be anyone else here but us.." As soon as he placed a foot down, his phone began beeping in his pocket. He pulled it out, silencing the noise. "It's 12:30. The others are gonna come looking for us soon."

"Right." I nodded, turning my back to the tree that I thought I had seen the figure duck around. "It must have just been my imagination." Even so, I still felt uneasy.

"Let's go northwest." The brunette smiled to me reassuringly. "Maybe we can sneak up on Lilac and Shortstop."

"Yeah!" I nodded, heading in the direction that he had referenced.

We walked together quietly for about three minutes when the brunette suddenly wrapped an arm around me, pulling me to the ground with him.

"W-What was that for?!" I was about to ask, but he put a finger to my mouth and pointed through the bush in front of us.

Peering through the leaves and branches, I could see long, bare legs, a lavender colored tank top, denim shorts, and bob-length blonde hair swept out to the sides. It was Lilac, and she was standing idly with her back to us.

Little Monster put his hand to my right ear, whispering quietly. "Now, do what I showed you."

"Right." I whispered back, resting the barrel of the paintball gun on the branches of the bush, lining it up with the back of Lilac's right leg. I pulled the trigger.

Lime green paint splattered on the back of my friend's calf, dripping down slowly to her heel. But..

She didn't budge.

I gave her a moment before turning to Little Monster in confusion. He looked just as lost as I was.

"Lilac.." I said, raising to my feet. "I got you, you're dead-"

I was immediately slapped in the face by an overwhelming aroma I knew far too well. My eyes widened, and the paintball gun slipped out of my hands.

"LILAC!" I cried out just as the blonde fell to her knees and collapsed on the ground.

As I reached my friend, the smell of blood became even stronger.

"Help me roll her over as a unit!" I commanded to the brunette without thinking about how I was speaking to him.

"Right!" He nodded, helping me roll her over as a single entity so that we could see her face and her torso.

I covered my mouth with my hands, trembling.

One of my best friends had what appeared to be a gaping gunshot wound to the liver, big enough for us to see inside. But there wasn't any sort of bullet. Instead, what we were presented with were several triangular membranes affixed to her liver with small crystals.

I shakily lowered my hands as tears began to fall from my eyes. "That's Triti." I breathed hoarsely. "That's the strain of GUILT representing Tuesday.."

"Lilac, oh my god! What happened to you?!" I pulled her head into my lap. Her lips were parted and her eyes were open but glassy. Blood oozed from her wound.

Lilac must have heard the sound of my voice, because her eyes rolled towards me. "Hera.." She breathed.

"Lilac.." I half-lidded my eyes, tears falling down onto my friend's face.

"Hera.. You have to run." Lilac shakily reached up to hold my hand. "If you don't.. They'll get you, too.." The blonde let out a shaky breath.

"How can you even say that?!" I cried out, squeezing her hand in mine. "We aren't going to leave you behind.."

"Lilac, where's Shortstop?" Little Monster asked, leaning over her. "Where did he go?"

"We got separated when they ambushed us." Lilac breathed in sharply, trembling.

"Who are "they"? Who ambushed you?" I asked desperately.

"The people.. Who shot me." Lilac wheezed. "They surrounded us from the front and from behind.. Shortstop and I, we ran in different directions. Then I ran into the girl who shot me."

I immediately thought to the white haired figure that I saw earlier. "What did she look like, Lilac?"

"She had a face a lot like Leslie, but with light blue hair." Lilac gazed up at the sky. "..She had Triti membranes on her skin, Hera.."

"Triti in her skin?" I repeated in surprise, my mind wandering until I realized that Lilac was only getting weaker. "We have to get her out of here and find the others."

"You're right." The brunette slung his paintball gun by the strap over his shoulder, picking Lilac up in his strong arms. My heart lurched at this display of masculine strength.

"Over there!" From behind us came a voice that did not belong to Shortstop, Sting, or Kimmy. The brunette ran in the direction that Lilac was facing when we first found her. I gave chase.

"It hurts." Lilac breathed weakly, bouncing in the brunette's arms.

"I know, I'm sorry." I said to the blonde, wincing at how painful her open wound looked. Her liver was exposed to the open air. She could get an infection.

Little Monster stopped suddenly. I stopped a few feet ahead of him, my body facing forward but my head turned to look at him over my shoulder. "What's wrong?" I asked him. "They're going to find us if we don't keep moving!"

"They already have." The brunette motioned to a white haired woman standing in front of us.

"Are you with the people that hurt my friend?" I demanded to know, balling my right hand into a fist.

"Who wants to know?" The woman spoke loudly, likely because she was wearing a black, leather surgical mask over her mouth and nose.

I stepped forward, my body language aggressive and almost out of character. "Someone from Caduceus! You're about to be in a lot of trouble, sister!" I snarled.

"If you're not Hera Preston, get out of my way." She took a step forward. Something dragged on the ground alongside her.

"What do you want with Hera Preston?" Little Monster demanded, setting Lilac down to rest against the trunk of a tree.

"We need her to come with us." The woman said, narrowing her light gray eyes that were almost white.

"And what happens if she doesn't?" I took another step forward.

"Then we'll kill her friends and take her by force." The woman said grimly.

I lowered my arms, my expression and posture changing from aggressive to hesitant and weak. "..Okay.." I responded plainly.

"Hera, don't!" The brunette shouted, taking a step forward.

The woman's eyes lit up. " _You_ are Hera Preston.." She realized, gazing at me.

"You promise that if I go with you, you'll leave my friends alone?" I asked softly.

"I promise." The woman answered.

"Okay.. I'll go with you." I said, beginning to walk towards her.

"Hera, don't do this!" Little Monster shouted. "You have no idea what they plan to do to you!"

"But if I don't go, you and Lilac will be killed." I said, tears running down my face.

"Hera, I'm already going to die." Lilac wheezed, an arm wrapped around her abdomen. "The Triti is spreading.. If you don't run, you might get infected, too.."

I sniffed, wiping my right eye with my fist. "I can't run, not knowing that you might die.."

"She won't die, because you're going to save her, Hera!" Take Lilac and run, I'm going to hold her off." The brunette ran towards the woman, tackling her to the ground.

My eyes widened, but I didn't have time to waste. I ran over to Lilac, swinging her arm over my shoulder and helping her up. "Let's go!" I told her, trying to get her to run with me while the brunette held the woman with white hair down for us to make an escape.

"Give me Hera Preston!" The woman cried out moments before the brunette bashed his forehead into hers.

"We have to get you out of here." I told Lilac. But in my panic, I was unable to remember where we entered the woods from. I followed the light and headed to what appeared to be a clearing.

I gasped and stumbled as the clearing dropped off, ending in a cliff's edge. A couple of loose stones fell from the tall cliff and fell into the Pacific Ocean below.

I grimaced, taking a few steps back.

"There's nowhere for you to run now." A female voice came from behind us. I turned to look over my shoulder to see a young woman with minty green hair done up in buns and a white kimono.

"Who are you people?" I breathed.

"My name is Kameko Kyriaki." The woman smirked, brandishing what appeared to be a katana.

"What do you mean "Kyriaki?" I demanded, noticing that she resembled the strain of GUILT responsible for creating lacerations on organs. "What are you going to do with that sword?"

"I'm going to kill your friend here after you tell me where Hera Preston is, and then I'll kill you."

"And what are you going to do when you get Hera Preston?" I narrowed my eyes. "Kill her?"

"No, I have specific orders to keep her alive and bring her back to our base."

"You're looking at her." I glared, pulling Lilac close to me. "This is Hera Preston."

"What are you doing?" Lilac whispered to me. "She'll kill you."

"Promise me that you'll keep her alive." I demanded of Kameko.

"I promise by my orders that I will keep Hera Preston alive." The woman answered, still smirking. "Bring her to me."

I hesitated before I began to walk Lilac over towards her.

"She's going to kill you." Lilac whispered, her breathing shallow.

"Yeah, but you'll live." I smiled to her sadly.

I leaned Lilac up against a tree trunk that Kameko gestured to with her katana.

"There you go.." I told my blonde friend. "You'll be okay now.."

Lilac gazed up at me with tears in her eyes, her arm over her wound. "You idiot.."

I took a few steps back, smiling at her.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a flash of green and white.

I ducked down just as Kameko came at me with her sword, causing her to both miss and trip over me.

"Run!" Lilac screamed.

I pulled myself up, running away from the cliff side and back into the woods in the direction that I thought the public road might be. If I could just flag down I car, I could get help!

Lost in my train of thought, I tripped over a large root sticking out of the ground. As I fell, I slid along the ground a bit, irritating my incision.

"Ooww.." I shuddered, sitting up slowly to not irritate my incision any further. I winced from the burning sensation, and looked down at my chest to see that the incision was bleeding through my shirt.

"C-Come on, not now.." I trembled. A shadow encroached me. From the outline, I could tell that it was Kameko with her sword.

I looked over my shoulder, prepared to see my death coming. At least I had saved Lilac, and hopefully Kameko would get in trouble when it was discovered that she had killed the real Hera Preston.

I let out a shaky sigh, reaching up and grabbing the chest of my blood soaked shirt. I could feel the bat flapping frantically in my chest, as if she were trying to warn me that we were about to die. I already knew that. I closed my eyes gently.

"I wonder how well your guts match those braids your hair's in?" Kameko teased when there was a sudden gunshot, the sound of a ricochet, and a surprised noise from the green haired woman.

I opened my eyes and gasped softly to see Shortstop standing to my right, a small, white gun in hand. I looked to the left to see that Kameko's katana was on the ground, likely shot out of her hand.

"Shortstop.." I breathed, gazing up at the blonde. "You saved me.."

My eyes fell on Kameko's sword laying on the ground I scrambled over towards it, feeling my incision stretching as I did so. I grabbed onto the handle tightly, glaring up at her. "Now you don't have a weapon."

Kameko narrowed her eyes, raising her hands up in a surrender.

I stumbled as I tried to sit up, feeling lightheaded. I leaned against the sword, gazing down at my incision. That was why I was lightheaded. I was losing a lot of blood. I felt my eyes grow heavy, and I collapsed into the dirt.


	6. Chapter 4

_"Nature mandates that mankind will eventually succumb to poison. However, humans created their own poison, called medicine. It's delusion to believe you can toxify nature to avoid your fate." -Adam_

 _"No...it's delusional to dismiss peoples' deaths as 'fate.'" -Derek Stiles_

 _"Your poison isn't natural OR medicinal; it's madness!" -Naomi Kimishima_

 _ **MANKIND'S FOURTH GUILT**_

When I awoke, I found myself back in my hospital room at Caduceus. I gazed to my left to see another bed in the room. In the bed was Lilac, sleeping peacefully.

"You're awake." I turned my head to the right to see Amanda sitting on the guest bench underneath the window sill. She seemed sad and unhappy.

"Amanda, what's wrong?" I shivered, pulling my hospital blankets up around me.

"I was so worried about the two of you." Amanda said softly. "I thought that I was going to lose you both." She closed her eyes and held a tissue to her nose.

"Is Lilac okay?" I asked quietly, carefully shifting in bed. I gazed down the front of my hospital gown to look at my incision. It had been sewn back up.

"She'll be okay." Amanda said, lowering her tissue and opening her eyes. "They cured her Triti and treated her wounds. You both got blood transfusions."

"Blood transfusions?" I repeated, gazing over to my left arm. I lifted it somewhat, seeing an IV with red fluid flowing.

"They said your blood type is AB-." Amanda smiled somewhat, trying to cheer me up. "I believe that they're giving you A- blood."

I smiled a little. That was good to know. "What about Lilac?"

"I believe that they said she's B-. She's getting O- blood."

"Cool.." I breathed, gazing back at Amanda. I let out a shaky breath. "How are the others? Are they okay?"

Amanda half lidded her eyes sadly. "Little Monster is being treated for minor chemical burns. Sting is being treated for a Pempti infection. Kimmy and Shortstop have a few scratches, but are fine."

"How did this happen?" I huffed, holding my head in my hands. "We were just paintballing. How did GUILT get involved?"

"Kimmy told me everything." Amanda spoke up. "The police think that the people who ambushed you were with Delphi, and that's why some of you got infected with GUILT."

"Delphi is here for a third time." I sighed, running my fingers through my bangs.

"Kimmy said that they were looking for you." Amanda said, concerned. "What does Delphi want with _you?_ "

"I don't know, that's what I'm wondering." I looked down at my hands. "One of them, her name was Kameko, said that she had orders not to kill me, just take me back to their base. I told her that Lilac was me so that she would spare her life. It looked like it worked." I gazed back over to where Lilac was sleeping. "I'm glad."

"I'm glad you're both okay." Amanda smiled softly. "I don't know what I'd do if something happened to you."

"I don't know what I'd do if something happened to _you._ " I said, smiling sheepishly. "I'm glad that you ended up staying behind where it's safe. How did shadowing Leslie go?"

"It was going well until you all got transferred here. After that, Leslie got called in to assist Dr. Chase in Lilac's Triti operation, so I went to prepare this room for the two of you."

"Where are the boys now?" i asked.

"I don't know about Little Monster, but Shortstop and Kimmy are waiting for Sting to get out of surgery. He's being operated on by Elise."

"He'll be okay then." I said optimistically. "Elise is one of the best surgeons Caduceus has."

I looked over as Lilac stirred in her bed, opening her dark pink eyes. She turned her head towards me, a looking of surprise washing over her face. "Hera.. You're alive." She breathed.

"And so are you." I smiled, still feeling a little weak. "We all made it out alive."

Lilac gazed down the front of her hospital gown like I had done earlier. She tried to sit up, craning her neck to try and see the foot of the bed. "Amanda, can you bring my chart to me?"

"Of course." Amanda said, coming over to the foot of Lilac's bed. She picked up the clipboard and handed it to the blonde.

"Thanks." Lilac said, taking the clipboard with her charts from the chocolate skinned girl. She flipped the first page over, scanning the one underneath. She furrowed her brow. "I'm trying to figure out how I got shot but infected with Triti. They never extracted a bullet according to my-"

We looked up as a figure knocked on the doorframe to our hospital room. It was a man I had never seen before, who appeared to be in his forties or fifties. "Excuse me, girls." He began, reaching into his jacket and pulling out a police badge. "I'm Detective Buckley. If you don't mind, I have some questions for you."

"Um, alright." I answered, a little nervous. "Come on in."

"Don't be nervous." He told me as he came into the room. "You're not in trouble, I just want to hear about the incident that occurred earlier today."

"Oh, alright." I said, carefully sitting up more in bed. "I'll tell you whatever I can."

I told Detective Buckley everything that I could remember, and so did Lilac. He told me specifically to be careful when going out, and that I might want to look into getting pepper spray to carry around. He thanked us, and then left.

"Glad that's over." Lilac said when the detective was out of earshot. "Do you think that they're going to be able to track them down?"

"I don't know," I said back. "One of them was wearing a mask."

My heartbeat quickened when I heard a loud and rapid sound out in the hallway. After a few moments, I was able to recognize it as the sound of Kimmy running, and I calmed down.

"You guys are alive!" Kimmy shouted cheerfully, erupting into the doorway. "I'm so glad!" She ran into the room to Lilac's bedside, which was closer to the doorway. "I was worried that you two would never wake up." She whined, squeezing Lilac tightly. I noticed that there was an odd looking, leather bound journal of sorts in Kimmy's other hand.

"Kimmy, you're hurting me." Lilac grunted, trying to push the amaranth headed girl off of her.

"Kimmy, what's that you have there?" I asked as the two struggled together.

"Oh, this?" Kimmy asked, immediately letting go of Lilac. "I'm not entirely sure what it is. Leslie said to keep it safe until I could get it to you."

"That must be the journal I was told about." I concluded as Kimmy brought the leather-bound book to my bedside. "Someone said that the professor kept one while he was with Delphi."

"Really?" Lilac asked, readjusting herself in bed. "I wanna see what's in it!"

"Yeah, me too!" Kimmy said enthusiastically, even though she wasn't the best at reading.

"I don't think it would be a good idea to handle it too much." I said as I carefully took it from Kimmy. "We wouldn't want it falling apart." I turned to my chocolate toned friend. "Amanda, would you mind reading it outloud to us?" I held it out to her.

"I would love to." Amanda answered, delicately taking the journal from my hands. She pulled a guest chair to the space between Lilac and I's hospital beds, beginning to carefully open the journal.

Kimmy ran over to the hospital room door and closed it, hurrying back over to sit cross legged on the linoleum at Amanda's feet while we waited for her to begin.

"Oh, I'm not sure how to pronounce that word." Amanda said, furrowing her brow as she gazed down at the first yellowy page.

"That's not like you." I commented, also furrowing my brow.

"Well, it has a lot of strange keyboard symbols mixed with letters. I'll try my best." Amanda cleared her throat.

" _EVE-X* has proposed the idea of a new disease to us. I don't know what she's up to. This doesn't sound like it's Adam's idea at all. I think this is of her own design. She calls it Akumu, and she wants us to create it for her."_ Amanda read.

"Akumu was spelled out in the mysterious letter that showed up." I held my chin in my hands. It was starting to look like the bat really was made by Delphi. I thought back to my encounter with Kameko. She said her last name was "Kyriaki", which is a strain of GUILT.

" _EVE-X* has never been too concerned with Delphi's ideology against medicine, even though she's Adam's wife. I think she's more occupied with playing god herself. She said she designed Akumu specifically to test humanity's morals and value for life. I don't know what she means by this."_ Amanda looked up from the journal."Adam had a wife.."

"I guess his grandkids had to come from somewhere." Lilac shrugged. I guess we always thought that his descendants were artificially made, even though that would probably go against their ideology.

" _EVE-X* wants to use Pempti's data to manufacture a "mother core" for Akumu. She says that this core will prevent a vaccine from being made as long as it exists. I don't understand how that would work, but I'm not the one in charge. She and Adam are."_

"A mother core.." I repeated out loud, curious as to how they would use the rampaging nightmare's data.

" _EVE-X* has explained to me how the core is supposed to work. She said that the core is supposed to become one with its Sinner host, and that they will live in a mostly symbiotic relationship. She said that the Akumu Core will essentially become the Sinner's lifeforce.. "_ Amanda's voice trailed off uncomfortably. " _I told her that I don't think that's possible. She said not to worry.."_

I was holding my head in my hands by the time that Amanda had finished reading that passage. She hesitated before continuing.

" _EVE-X* is more fascinated with the Adrastos' daughter than she was with Angela when she was was a little girl. It almost makes me uncomfortable how infatuated she is. She's training Anastasia to see Adam and herself as her godparents. She's buying it."_

"Angela.. That's Angie." I said, still holding my head in my hands.

"Didn't Delphi try to turn her into a Sinner on more than one occasion or something?" Lilac asked.

" _Anastasia completely trusts EVE-X*. As a parent, I'm uncomfortable. Castalia doesn't seem to mind. She's offered her daughter up to be the Sinner for the Akumu Core. I can't believe her. Abioud, her husband, he has no idea what's happening. He thinks that Castalia is taking Anastasia to see the grandparents."_ Anxiety was evident in Amanda's voice. She turned the page.

" _I can't believe that I've helped to create this thing that will be going into a child. It never gets easier. This whole disease is insidious beyond anything I could have ever imagined. The Inner Circle is trying to come up with a codename for the core. They're thinking "Sleeping Lady" or "Kiss of Eternal Slumber". That's far too gentle a name for it. "Akumu" is a fitting name for it. The ceremony to put the Akumu Core into Anastasia begins tomorrow…"_ A panicked look began to spread across Amanda's face as she turned the page once more.

" _Things went horribly wrong. Liselotte isn't just different. She's insane. She performed a seance during the procedure to insert the core. I know what she summoned was evil, but I don't know if it's possible for it to be worse than that core. Whatever that entity was, it has never walked the earth as human. I'm sure of that. She offered Anastasia to it. This is all wrong, even by Delphi's standards."_ Amanda shakily turned the page.

" _Anastasia is dying. Her body is trying to reject that demonic pathogen. I don't want to be anywhere near her."_

" _Anastasia is in a coma, she's going to live. Abioud finally figured out that something was wrong. He tried to operate on Anastasia. He tried to save her. I think he knew that he couldn't cure her. He put everything he had into this operation for his daughter's sake. He pushed himself too hard trying to safe her. He's dead."_

Tears began to fall from Amanda's face as she read. " _Castalia is going to run away with Anastasia and start over. She's changing her name and her look once more. I wish it had been Anastasia and the Akumu Core that had died."_ Amanda closed the journal with shaky hands.

What the hell. _What the hell?_ What the hell was happening in this journal? There was another girl like me, with a bat in her lungs?

"We have to find her." I said. "We have to find Anastasia." She could be suffering somewhere. "I want to talk to Leslie. No.. I want to talk to the detective again."

"You rang?" Leslie beamed, standing in the doorway. "How are you girls feeling?"

"Sore and tender." I responded, ever so gently pressing on my incision through my hospital gown. "Is the detective still here? I need to talk to him."

"Yes, he's still here." Leslie told me as she came over to my bedside. "He's talking to the boys right now. I'll take you to go see him." She lowered the rail on the side of my hospital bed so I could more easily get up. "Let's go, Hera."

I was quiet for awhile as we went down the hall, my IV stand in tow. "Hey, Leslie? What if.. There's another girl like me?"

"What do you mean by that?" Leslie chuckled.

"The journal.. It mentioned a girl named Anastasia who had a lung bat put into her, too."

"Well, then I suppose there is more than one of you." Leslie said rather bubbly. "But.. You'll always be my special Hera." She crouched down to my level, putting her forehead to mine.

"And you'll always be my Leslie." I giggled as the greenette pulled away. "Leslie.. Are your parents my grandparents now?"

"That's right, you've never had grandparents before." Leslie mused. "Well, you're officially my foster daughter now.. So yes! That makes my parents your grandparents."

"Can I meet them someday?" I asked as we stopped outside of a closed door.

"Of course you can!" Leslie beamed. "I promise that you'll get to see them before you start high school in the fall. You're going to be a freshman! I'm so excited." Leslie knocked gently on the door before opening it. "Hello, boys! I have a special delivery to drop off!"

Leslie gently nudged me into a hospital room where the boys and Detective Buckley were gathered. I cleared my throat as Leslie closed the door and left me with them.

"I-I'm sorry for interrupting!" I said quickly, pulling my IV into the room with me. "I.. I need to talk to Detective Buckley again."

"You're not interrupting." The detective said, sitting up in his cair. "Did you remember something?"

"This is actually unrelated to your investigation." I said, holding my hands behind my back. "I actually have a request.."

By now, I had caught the attention of everyone except for Sting, who was asleep in his hospital bed. He must have recently got out of surgery.

"I have a parasite that was made by Delphi." I explained, mainly to the detective. "Professor Blackwell left a journal for me that explains what happened around the time that Delphi developed it..In it he mentions a family known as the Adrastos. I was hoping you might be able to look into them, especially their daughter, Anastasia."

"What purpose do you have for learning about them?" The detective asked.

I looked him dead in the eye. "Because Anastasia has the same parasite that I do. I believe she's still out there somewhere. If she is, we need to find her so she can be examined by a doctor."

"That's a fair point." Detective Buckley answered. "I'll accept."

"Thank you so much." I smiled. It felt like a weight had been lifted off of my shoulders. Or rather, my chest.

"If that's all, then I'll be going." The detective said, standing up from his chair. "Thank you all very much. I'm sure the information that you've provided will prove invaluable."

As the detective left, my eyes fell on Sting, sleeping in his hospital bed. "He's lucky that Elise was there to operate on him." I turned to Shortstop, who was scrolling through his phone. "..And I'm lucky that you showed up when you did. If you hadn't, I'd probably be dead right now." I smiled softly. "Thank you."

Shortstop locked his phone and slid it into his pocket before gazing up at me. "It was nothing."

"Don't be like that!" I grinned, stepping closer to him. "Seriously, I owe you my life! How can I ever repay you?"

The blonde took a long, hard look at me, and then said something that I wouldn't have seen coming in a million years.

"Stay away from my friends from now on."

"What?" I grinned, trying to process what he was saying.

"Shortstop-" Little Monster went to stand up from where he was seated.

"You heard me." The blonde repeated. "These people were looking for _you_ , and my friends were hurt in the process."

I took a good look at Little Monster for the first time since I came into the room. All over his arms, and even on his forehead, were burns. I covered my mouth with my hands.

I turned to look at Sting, who was still asleep from his surgery. Despite being operated on by Elise, he looked weak. My heart sunk.

Finally, I gazed at Shortstop, who was covered in scratches. I lowered my hands.

"I-I'm sorry!" I grabbed my IV and hurried out of the room as quick as I could with Little Monster calling after me.

"Hera, wait!"

I wanted to throw myself on top of my hospital bed, but I knew that I couldn't do that. I opened my incision again, it would only cause trouble for someone else.

"Hey, Hera! You're back!" Kimmy cheered as I hobbled back into the hospital room.

I moved past my friends, lowering myself on top the bed and burying my face into the pillows.

"Hera.. What's wrong?" Amanda came over, putting her hand on my shoulder. I gently shrugged her hand off.

"Don't worry about it." I choked, burying my face deeper into the pillow.

"Did Little Monster say he only wants to be friends?" Lilac asked softly. It was almost as if her hand was on my shoulder despite her being on the other side of the room.

"No, he didn't say anything like that." I lifted my face off of the pillow a bit so that they could hear me. "It was what Shortstop said.."

"What?!" I heard Lilac's bed creak angrily. "What did that asshole say to you?!"

I hesitated before lifting my head and facing Lilac with a damp face, especially around my eyes. "He said he doesn't want me hanging around them anymore. I think he blames me for what happened to everyone."

"Kimmy, go kick his ass." Lilac said bitterly.

"No, Kimmy, don't." I said quickly, sighing. "That will only make things worse."

"What do you want us to do, Hera?" Amanda asked, sitting on the edge of the bed.

"For now, I'd just like to be left alone." I said softly.

It was the next morning that I woke up to a flurry of long blonde hair. Not thinking, I tiredly called out Lilac's name.

"What?" She answered groggily. It sounded like she was still in her bed on the other side of the room.

I turned my head to the left to see a flash of light green eyes. Immediately, I knew that it was Angie.

"Angie.." I breathed, carefully sitting up in bed as my eyes fell on the blonde nurse.

"How are you feeling?" Angie smiled softly. "I just came to see how you were doing."

"I should be asking you that." I rubbed my eye. "I thought you and Dr. Stiles were still in Japan!"

Angie's expression dimmed. "We were but.. We headed back as soon as we got word that Delphi might be back once more.." She turned to Lilac, who was sleeping with her back to us. "..It looks like it was a good idea to return."

I lowered my head sadly, reminded of how my friends were hurt because of me.

"I was told what happened to you, too." Angie said, sitting on the edge of the bed.

"Your dad.. He left a journal that's supposed to explain everything. But.. I read it and it just doesn't make any sense." I hung my head.

"..Do you mind if I borrow the journal?" Angie asked after a moment. "I'm his daughter, so maybe I can make sense of it."

"Be my guest. It's in the nightstand." I told Angie, not bothering to lift my head.

I heard Angie open the nightstand drawer and pull the journal out. A moment later, her soft hand grasped my wrist.

I turned to see Angie smiling softly at me as she slid a pair of scissors between my wrist and hospital band. "I'll let you know if I find anything important out from reading the journal." Angie promised me before snipping the wristband off. "Amanda is waiting for you in the lobby. She said there's somewhere she wants to take you."

I nodded and smiled, feeling a little bit better. "Thank you, Angie."

The only clean clothes that I had to change into were the ones that I had worn paintballing. Leslie must have washed them.

The outfit that I found Amanda wearing was the one she usually wore on her days off. The white gogo boots she wore with her candy striper uniform, a white pleated skirt, and yellow turtleneck.

"You rang?" I smiled sheepishly as I approached Amanda in the lobby.

"I'm glad you're feeling better." Amanda smiled, hugging me quickly before placing a breakfast cookie in my hands. "I thought you might like something to eat on the way."

"Thanks." I said, opening the cookie and sticking the wrapper in my pocket. "Where are we going, anyways?"

"I can't tell you that." Amanda giggled as she headed outside. "You'll have to wait and see."

"Alright." I nodded, biting into the cookie as we went.

"The church?" I asked as we stopped outside of a regal building with a cross on top.

"Mmhmm!" Amanda nodded, her arms behind her back. "I thought that you may feel better if you spoke to Father Michael." Amanda reached out for the old fashioned knocker on the church door. She knocked it, waited a moment, and then entered.

"Father Michael? It's Amanda Cherrystone!" She entered the church, following down the velvet rug in the center of the aisle.

I stayed back at first. I didn't know why, but I had this nagging feeling that I shouldn't go in.

I stepped inside gingerly, and at once regretted it. I felt a surge of pain in my chest, and I inhaled sharply, hunching over a bit.

"Hera, what's wrong?" Amanda immediately came over to my side, putting her hands on my shoulders.

The pain seemed to ebb away, and I slowly stood up right. "I probably just ate the cookie too fast." I lied.

At the end of the rows of seated booths was an open space, and an altar behind that. I could see a figure in black moving to the right, lighting candles on the altar one by one.

"Ah, Amanda." I heard a click as the lighting ceased. A middle aged, caucasian man turned to face us with a smile. "I see you've brought a friend with you today."

"I did, Father." Amanda smiled as she approached the priest. "This is my friend, Hera. I've mentioned her to you a few times, Father." Amanda smiled, her hands behind her back.

"Ah, I remember now." Father Michael said taking a step closer to us. "You're the one that's been in the hospital a lot lately. Is that correct?"

My heart sunk a bit. "I.. Yes, it is, Father." I twiddled my thumbs and averted my eyes, "That's also the reason why we're here."

"What troubles you, child?" Father Michael crouched down to my level. It was comforting, but at the same time, I still felt uneasy.

I kept my eyes averted, playing with my left braid. Most of the information that was bothering me was confidential. I'd have to keep things vague. I made eye contact with the priest. "To put it simply, Father.. Some people that I care about recently got hurt because of me. They're reasonably upset." I gazed down at my shoes.

"Have you been baptized before?" The priest asked suddenly, standing back up.

"Huh?" I asked, my eyes widening a little as I gazed up at me. "No, I don't think so.. I don't remember anything before the age of five."

Father Michael chuckled a bit. "Even if you have been, it wouldn't hurt to have it done again. I actually started to set up for a baptism today, but the family cancelled."

"Father, that's a brilliant idea!" Amanda clasped her hands together, blue eyes shining. "I'm sure that will help Hera to feel better!"

"W-Wait! I never agreed to this!" I protested as Father Michael brought me over to a basin of water facing the empty audience.

"I promise you'll feel better once this is over." Father Michael reassured me, helping me up onto a step stool that was in front of the basin. There was that uneasy feeling again.

Before I could back out, my head and neck felt like it was freezing and on fire at the tie time. The water burned as it entered my nasal cavity. I tried to open my eyes, but they burned, too. I could barely see the gold interior of the bowl as the water fizzled around me and began to turn black. I could hear those words screaming in my mind once more.

" _It's a tsunami!"_

I tried to lift my head up and out of the basin but to no avail. Something was keeping my head submerged.

" _The priest..!"_ I screamed mentally as I fought to pull myself from the basin.

I suddenly hit the air of the church as the priest yanked me back up.

I sputtered and gasped for air. Other than my heartbeat pounding in my ears, there were two things that I could hear: Father Michael's chants and Amanda's cries of horror for him to stop.

" _ **I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire."**_

"Father, please!" Amanda shrieked, and I could hear the clacking of her boots as she came closer. "Something's wrong! Her face, it's covered in burns!"

That was the last thing I heard before I was dunked into the water for a second time. I felt a firey-icy burn in my chest, even though it was only my head that was being submerged. There was a fluttering in my chest. The bat, she knew something was wrong.

As my lungs began screaming for air, the priest pulled me up once more.

" _ **He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned."**_

"Father, you're hurting her!"

I was plunged back into the water.

" _It's a tsunami!"_

" _ **And forth with Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: And the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and were choked in the sea."**_

"Father, _Stop!_ " Amanda shrieked, finally trying to push the priest off of me.

"Amanda, if you interfere, you are going against God's word, and you will be punished!"

"I don't care!" She screamed, struggling with the priest. "I _know_ this isn't God's will, and even if it was..!" I could just barely see the tears streaming down her cheeks. "I would gladly go against the church for a friend!"

As the water cleared from my face, I was able to see more clearly what was happening. Amanda swung her leg up quickly in between the priest's legs, causing him to cry out and release his grip on me.

"Hera!" Amanda came over to me, catching me as I went limp. "I'm so sorry, I had no idea Father Michael would do this!" She sighed. "I never should have brought you here." She went to touch her forehead to mine, but quickly changed her mind when she took a good look at the burns on my face.

"Come on.. Let's get you back to Caduceus."

The first person we say when we got back to Caduceus was Derek, who we hadn't seen in months. "Hera! Amanda! What happened?!" The brunette shouted, hurrying over to us. "Hey, can someone get me a burn kit over here?!"

Derek got on his knees in front of me and began to part my bangs so he could get a look at the burns on my face.

"Dr. Stiles!" Amanda exclaimed. "Hera- I took her to the church. Father Michael tried to forcibly baptize her, and the water, it-"

"Water did this?!" Derek asked in surprise, taking another look at me. "But these look like chemical burns!"

"Doctor.. It wasn't just regular water." I could tell that Amanda was holding her breath. "Father Michael only uses holy water."

Derek was silent before he let my bangs fall back into place. He stood up. "Come on, let's treat your burns and check your vitals. You don't look so good."

My burns were only second degree, so they would heal quickly thanks to modern medicine. For the meantime, I was admitted back to Caduceus in the same room as Lilac. She would be discharged soon.

While I was resting, Leslie and Angie stopped by to check on me.

"Hera.." Leslie said softly, and I slowly opened my eyes to look at her.

"What is it?" I asked, going to sit up. Leslie gently pushed me back down.

"I have some good news and bad news for you." Leslie didn't seem like her usual bubbly self. She didn't sound like Leslie, either. She reached into her uniform pocket, pulling out a small, sterling silver bracelet. My eyes immediately lit up as it reflected in the sunlight peering in through my hospital window.

Leslie gently took my left wrist in her hands and began to fasten the bracelet to it. It looked like one of those diabetic bracelets.

"This is an emergency alert bracelet for you." Leslie smiled almost sadly. "Dr. Niguel.. He's not sure how long it will take to truly cure you, so in the meantime, we had this made for you."

I turned my wrist over to look at the dog tag on the bracelet and the message that was engraved on it.

" _In case of emergency, bring to nearest Caduceus."_

I looked up at Leslie a little nervously. "You guys don't expect any medical emergencies, do you?"

"No, we don't." Leslie knelt down, petting my hair. "But we also were only able to learn so much about the bat.. There's a lot about it we still don't know."

I stared down at the bracelet for a moment, not lifting my head to gaze at Leslie when I spoke again. "I have a feeling that wasn't the bad news you had for me."

"No... " Leslie put her hands on top of mine. "It wasn't." My heart skipped a beat. My situation was already so bad. How could it get any worse?

"Hera.." Leslie squeezed my hands. "Until we find out how contagious this disease is and how it affects you, Dr. Hoffman is suspending your volunteership as a candy striper. Effective immediately."

"B-But Leslie.." I choked out. "If what Angie said is true.. I can't be cured."

I could see myself in Leslie's hazel eyes as she began to tear up, and I did the same. "I know." She whispered.

I yanked my hands away from Leslie to hold my head in my hands. Being a candy striper at Caduceus was everything to me. And now, that was being taken away from me. Not just taken away, but ripped away, just like mom was.

"I'm sorry, sweetie." Leslie embraced me, and that was the last of it.

I barely even remember how I got there, to the cliff edge that Kameko had cornered me at not too long ago. I sat with my feet dangling over the edge, and looked down at where the ocean licked the cliff hundreds of feet below. I wasn't afraid of how high up I was. I wasn't afraid of falling. I wasn't even afraid of the ocean below. I didn't feel anything.

I put my elbows on my lap and held my head in my hands as I gazed down at the violent ocean below. Shortstop doesn't want me around his friends, that Father Michael and that bat expert woman think I'm a monster, Amanda probably isn't welcome at the church anymore because of what happened, Lilac got GUILT and almost died because of me, and now I wasn't a candy striper anymore. But even after all of that, I didn't really feel anything inside anymore. I watched as the ocean violently lapped at the cliff's edge, and thought back to how those same waters tore my family and life apart. It almost felt like the ocean was calling to me. Would it really be so bad if I went with it?

"Hey."

I guess I was so absorbed in my own thoughts that I didn't even hear him approach. I closed my eyes and let out a heavy exhale before turning to look at him.

Maybe Shortstop could tell by looking at me that I was dead inside, because although he didn't show it on his face, he spoke almost softly. "If now's a bad time, I can come back later."

I gazed at the blonde with a dull look in my eyes. "I doubt there's anything you could do that could make things worse. Say what you need to say."

"I overheard the blonde nurse talking on the phone. I wanted to know if what she was saying was true."

I immediately knew what he was talking about. He must have overheard Angie's phone call with Professor Blackwell about my condition. I blinked tiredly, and rose to my feet.

"I don't know what you heard exactly, but it's probably true. I'm a vector for an unheard of disease."

"..And that disease is?"

"Akumu. The disease of the seven deadly sins. It's going to sweep Angeles Bay and end with me and any other Akumu Core holders in a coma." I took a few steps towards the blonde.

"Wait, Akumu Core? What is that?" He took a step back for each one I took towards him.

"You heard about it, didn't you? The bat in my lungs? That's my _Akumu Core._ It's one with me. It's my _soul._ "

I don't think either of us expected for an earthquake to happen then. I didn't expect to go off the cliff edge by any force other than my own will. It was that lack of control that finally brought my senses back.

I cried out as I went over the edge of the cliff, already hearing the ocean roaring beneath me. I feared that I would end up just like my sister did seven years ago: Under the sea with no one sure if I would ever resurface.

I felt a sudden yanking sensation as the blonde grabbed my wrist at the last moment, before I disappeared below the edge of the cliff completely.

It was in that moment that I felt like my mother, hanging on for dear life above the perilous sea.

"Please don't let go! I don't want to die like this!" I called out.

"I won't!" He called out to me from the cliff top, already beginning to pull me back up.

The next thing I remembered was warmth and comfort. I opened my eyes to see a beautiful bedroom. I blinked groggily. I wanted to close my eyes and go back to whatever I had been doing. Sleeping, maybe. I rolled over onto my left side.

I was able to see now that I was laying on a queen sized bed next to a sleeping Shortstop.

I carefully sat up in bed, a flash of blue and pink in front of me. I realized that there was a mirror on the other side of the room across from the bed. I sat up on my knees, squinting at the mirror. When had my hair become unbraided? Where had my contacts gone? I turned to Shortstop momentarily before quietly getting out of the bed and approaching the mirror.

The mirror was part of an old fashioned beauty station. When I approached it, I could see a couple of items sitting on the table top, as if waiting for me. The first item that I picked up was a hair brush. I ran it through my hair, getting the tangles out.

I grabbed one of the hair ties sitting at the beauty station, sliding it over my right wrist. I began to form the hair on my left into a braid, followed by the right.

The last item sitting at the beauty station was a contact lense container. It couldn't be, could it? I opened the container. Yellow contacts.

I gazed up in the mirror at Shortstop. It couldn't have been him, could it? When did we even get here? Where were we, even? I shook my head, beginning to insert the contact lenses.

"You're awake." I heard behind me as I finished putting the lenses in. I gazed at Shortstop in the mirror before turning around to face him. "So are you." I smiled. "Do you.. Know where we are? I don't remember coming here."

The blonde stared off for a moment before quickly sitting up to look at the back board of the bed. There was a large, cursive "M" engraved in the center. He turned back around. "Shit.."

"Huh? What's wrong?" I furrowed my brow, curious as to how that one letter got such a reaction out of him. And it was almost as if he knew to look for it..

"We're going to be here for awhile." He said suddenly.

"Huh? Why? For how long is "awhile"?" I was nervous. Leslie would wonder where I am. That was, if we weren't dead and this wasn't the afterlife.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." The blonde said as he stood up from the bed.

"Well, would you believe me if I told you that there's a bat in my lungs serving as my soul?" I asked him.

The blonde stopped and turned to me. "Good point. Follow me." He opened the bedroom door, heading out.

I stood up, smoothing my denim skirt before following after.

The living room was beautiful and cozy. It was heavily decorated, and it was the kind of home that I would expect a happily married elderly couple to share together. I stopped next to a large photo frame display, and I was surprised by the content that I saw in the photo frames.

I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that there were pictures of Shortstop. He knew this place, didn't he? But there were also pictures of me. Pictures that shouldn't exist anymore. There were pictures of me as a little girl in Hawaii.

"I don't understand.." I trembled, touching my fingertips to the glass of the photo display. "..These pictures should have been lost years ago. Why are they here?"

The blonde came over to me with an apple in hand. "That's because they weren't acquired by natural means." He took a bite out of the apple.

"That doesn't make sense." I protested. "There's no way someone could have gotten these. And why are they with pictures of you?"

The blonde chewed and swallowed his bite of apple before turning to me. "I told you that you wouldn't believe me."

"These pictures. Shouldn't exist." I put my hands on the blonde's shoulders firmly. My voice was raising to a panic. "You have to tell me how they got here!"

Shortstop reached up, pulling my hands off of his shoulders. "Madevery." He said.

"What? Who? You aren't making any sense."

"Madevery is the person who brought us here." He explained, moving to sit down on the couch. "The reason why pictures of us are here is because she's a ghost."

"A ghost?" I repeated, beginning to go pale. "What do you mean she's a ghost?" I felt goosebumps begin to cover my skin. The thought of a ghost made me very uncomfortable. I hurried around to the couch and plopped down next to Shortstop, feeling safer at once.

"I mean she's dead." He said, crossing one leg over the other in the way that men do. "She's otherworldly."

"Otherworldly.." I lifted my hands up around my upper arms as if to hug myself. "That still doesn't explain how we got here, or where we are."

Just as I said that, a figure began to materialize in the chair on the other side of the room.

I felt my heart stand still as the woman materialized before us. There was an overwhelming sense of fear, and my chest tightened. I knew that the woman appearing before us was a ghost, and I was terrified. I wanted to run out of the house to get as far away from her as possible, but she was right by the front door and I couldn't move.

"There's no need to be afraid." The woman finished materializing, and I could see that she was only a few years older than us. At least, she appeared that way. I began to relax when I heard her voice. She had a somewhat calming vibe once you got over the fact that she was a ghost. I felt my muscles ease up.

The blonde narrowed his eyes as he stared at the brunette woman before us. "Why did you bring us here?"

The woman crossed her legs and smiled, lifting a white teacup from its saucer. "I saw that the two of you were having some problems and thought that you two could use some time away from home to sort these problems out. Also.. You two seemed to be in a mortal situation." The brunette answered before bringing the porcelain teacup to her lips and sipping from it.

"Our problems are none of your concern." The blonde told her. "We don't need you to interfere." I could tell from his ungrateful tone that he didn't care for this woman, who, based on content, I presumed to be Madevery.

"Actually," I spoke up. "I appreciate that you brought us here, wherever we are. ..Madevery."

Madevery smiled to me, and turned a bit in her chair so her body was facing me, too. "I knew you would feel that way, Hera. You're such a good girl, not at all like my nephew."

Shortstop let out a low growl.

"Your nephew?" I repeated. "Are you talking about Shortstop?" I asked, surprised. They didn't look at all alike. Were they related by marriage and not by blood?

"That's right." Madevery held her smile, setting her teacup down on its saucer. "I'm his great aunt, several generations back."

"But ma'am." I protested. "How can that be, I mean, you look so-"

"Young?" She finished. "Why, yes, I do. I died young, afterall. But my child.. I am _much_ older than I appear."

"Madevery, why are there pictures of me here? And where is "here"?"

"You could say that this is one of my vacation houses." The brunette said, gesturing around the room. "As for the pictures, I thought you could use a little help in remembering who you are." She smiled softly, as if referring to my recent disassociation.

"That's very kind, thank you." I said genuinely. "I haven't seen some of these photos in a long time."

"That's why I thought you might like to see them. Now I need to be going for the time being, but I will be checking in with you." Madevery said as she began to fade away.

"Wait!" I stood up, running around the coffee table to where Madevery was sitting. "When are we going to go home?"

"You'll go home when you're healed." Madevery's voice faded away along with her body.

"When I'm healed.." I repeated, gazing down at the teacup and saucer that she had left behind.

"That's not like her to leave something behind." Shortstop commented, standing up from the couch.

I watched him to see what he would do next, but all he did was go to the kitchen behind the couch we had been sitting on.

I turned to face the cabinets that Madevery would have been facing if she were still here. It looked like there were photo albums in the cabinets. I approached it, and tried to open it. It was locked. Someone, Madevery, must not have wanted me to get in there.

"Hey." The blonde called, and I quickly left the cabinet and came over.

When I approached the blonde, he was crouched in front of a bookshelf, his fingers on the spine of a book. He gazed up at me. "There's a lot of medical books here, I think Madevery left them for you." He stood back up, turning to one of the doors leading to another room. It was as if he had been here before. "I'm going to lie down for a bit."

"Huh?" I was a little confused and concerned. "But we just woke up from a nap." I protested.

"I don't feel good." He said as he put his hand on the doorknob, entering the room of his voice.

I continued to stay where I was as the blonde left, gazing down at the floor until I heard the bedroom door close. I slowly lowered myself in front of the bookshelf, barely paying attention to the titles of books that I ran my fingers along. It was just a guess, but it was probably his Crohn's that was bothering him. I wished there was something I could do to help. As I directed my attention back to the books, something caught my eyes.

My fingers were touching the spine of a book on herbal remedies. I hesitated, then slid the book out of its spot on the shelf.

I wandered into the kitchen and dining room area, keeping the book close to my chest.

I set the book on the clean kitchen countertop, pleased that the book was able to stay open by itself. I flipped through the book, which listed descriptions and pictures of different plants and their medicinal uses. From the first few pages of the book, I was able to gather that ginger, chamomile, and peppermint are good for stomach aches, especially when brewed in tea. It even said that kale was good for the immune system and inflammation, which gave me a ray of hope since Crohn's is an autoimmune disease.

I left the book's side and opened the fridge, surprised to see that there was almost nothing in it. I found this very concerning. What were we supposed to do for meals while we were here?

I hefted myself up onto the counter and opened the cupboards. There was almost nothing there. I huffed, hopping off of the counter, and wandered the kitchen and dining room area in thought. As I walked by the glass door near the dinner table, I happened to stop, and glance outside. My eyes immediately lit up with shades of green.

I took the book from the counter and hurried outside to the garden where vegetables and other foods were flourishing. We could make meals out of the food out here! I immediately got to work.

It was about six pm when I finished, quietly entering the bedroom that the blonde had chose to enter earlier. It was a peaceful room, definitely the kind of room that I would expect grandparents to set aside for when their grandchildren visit. Out of the two, single sized beds in the room, the blonde had chosen the one on the right to fall asleep on top of. He looked so peaceful, I almost didn't want to wake him up.

"Hey, wake up." I shook him gently. The blonde groaned, opening an eye begrudgingly

"What?"

"I made dinner. Come on." I smiled softly.

"I'm not hungry." He grumbled, closing his eye again.

I guess I should have known when he said that, that something was wrong. I didn't know it at the time, but as we got to know each other, I realized that he loved food.

But right now I was hurt. "A-Are you serious?" I asked, a little bit deflated. "I just spent three hours making dinner, and you're not going to eat it?" My temper was rising along with my tone. I looked to my right and saw that the blonde was sleeping on the bed with his ugg boots still on. That made me angrier.

"Okay, get up!" I didn't bother to keep my voice down and just shook him, not as gently as before. "I made you dinner, and you're going to eat it! I'm not taking no for an answer!"

"Would you stop yelling?" He furrowed his brow without opening his eyes. "I told you, I'm not hungry."

I growled, balling my hands into fists. "I specifically made something to help you with your Crohn's, you stubborn- Oooh!" I stomped my foot angrily. "Nevermind! If you don't want any, I'll just put it away!" I stomped out of the room, slamming the door behind me. I didn't even feel bad to see the picture frames on the walls swinging, or hear the cabinets rattling. I angrily put aluminum foil over dinner and put it into the fridge, not bothering to put any of the dishes away.

I left the kitchen, briskly walking to the bedroom on the other side of the house that we had first woke up in. I closed the door behind me, locking it just so that the blonde couldn't come in if he needed something for whatever reason. That's how angry I was.

I laid down in the middle of the bed for awhile, staring up at the ceiling with my arms behind my head. I contemplated taking a shower, finally deciding to do so in the morning. I removed my denim skirt, throwing it across the room before getting under the covers and sighing a bit. I closed my eyes.

As I begin to slip into unconsciousness, I heard a voice speaking to me.

" _Isn't he just despicable?"_

"What?" I breathed tiredly.

" _That blonde boy. Aren't you upset with him?"_

"Yes.." I breathed effortlessly.

" _Good, you should be. You went to all that work, and for what?"_

"Yes.." I breathed again, my understanding of the situation fading as the voice lulled me to sleep.

I woke up the next morning with the sun pouring into the room from the window. I lay in a sunlit patch of fabric and sheets. I wanted to stay sleeping forever, but my body wouldn't let me. I had already been sleeping for a long time. I forced myself to get out of bed, stretching and yawning by the window. I entered the bathroom. It was well enough lit from a frosted glass window leading outside that I wouldn't have to turn the lights on.

I closed the bathroom door and began to change out of the clothes that I was still wearing when I went to sleep. I didn't bother to lock the door to the master bathroom. Afterall, I had already locked the door to the bedroom. I felt secure enough.

I removed the ties from my hair and began to unravel my braids.

When I had finished washing away the dirt from my time outside, I realized that the shampoo and conditioner in the shower were specifically for colored hair. Was this from Madevery?

After finishing my shower, I towel dried my body and hair. I didn't know what I expected when I approached the wardrobe, but I opened it to see that it was filled with clothes. All of the dresses, from what I could tell, were beautiful.

"Is this lolita?" I asked to no one in particular as I ran my hands over a light pink dress. It looked a lot like the dress that Little Monster had gotten for me.

In the dresser drawers were all kinds of things that went with the dresses. Undergarments in my size, stockings in different colors, petticoats, plastic and resin rings, velvet chokers, hair bows, etc.

After changing into a set of undergarments, I stood in front of the wardrobe and contemplated what to wear. I chose a dress that was mainly a purply pink color with hints of pastel blue and pastel pink. Near the bottom of the dress was a print of carousel horses going around the bottom rim of the dress.

I spun around, looking at myself in the full body mirror before I turned to the dresser to find some accessories. I picked a total of three hairbows to wear that day. Two small, pastel blue ones that I put on the ends of my braids and one large, lavender one that I secured to the back of my head.

I selected a pastel blue choker and some light pink stockings from the accessory drawer, putting those on followed by a pair of dressy shoes that were the same pink as the top half of the dress.

I looked through the plastic and resin rings to find something that would go with the day's outfit. I picked out a rocking horse, a heart, and a gelatin ring, all in pastel colors. I took a deep breath and unlocked the bedroom door, ready to face the day.

As I exited the bedroom I saw that the blonde was laying across one of the couches, reading a book.

I came up from behind the blonde, walking around the couch and letting the skirt of my dress brush up against him as I walked by. He barely seemed to notice.

I moved around to the foot of the couch and grabbed him by the boots, pulling them off and carrying them to the front door where I then set them down.

"Don't put your shoes on the furniture." I told him as I walked past into the kitchen, not as angry as I was the night before.

I heard the blonde mumble a response to me from the couch, still absorbed in his book.

I pulled a carton of eggs out of the fridge and set it on the counter. Wasn't the fridge empty yesterday? I turned towards the fridge as I thought about it, but I shook my head.

The eggs in the small carton were all different colors, shapes and sizes. "How many eggs do you want?" I called out from the kitchen.

"Four." I heard the blonde call back. I wasn't at all surprised. He missed dinner last night, and so had I.

So I cooked that entire small carton of eggs for the two of us. Scrambled, the only way I knew how.

"Breakfast's ready." I said as I set his plate at the end of the table closest to the living room. I sat at the other end of the table with the door to the patio right behind me.

I heard the couch creak as the blonde got up and made his way over to the table, book still in hand. He set the book on the tabletop, and I could see that it was a copy of Romeo and Juliet.

"Why are you reading that?" I asked him from where I was seated. "You've already read it, haven't you?"

"I'm rereading it so that I can help you with your essay. You're lucky that this house has a copy of it."

I blinked in surprise. "You.. Still want to help me with that? I thought you didn't want anything to do with me after the paintballing incident."

"I didn't." Shortstop said, momentarily leaning forward in his seat. "But then I overheard that blonde nurse on the phone, and saw the state you were in at the cliff top." He leaned back and crossed his arms, averting his gaze as if he didn't want to admit it. "I may have been wrong about you. If what that nurse said is true, this isn't your fault."

I rolled my fork over in my hand, gazing down at my plate. "Maybe those guys coming after us wasn't my fault, but I'm still not entirely free from blame." I looked up to see him gazing at me intently. "I _am_ responsible for some of this. You heard Angie talking on the phone, didn't you?"

"What's your point?"

"My point is that if anyone gets sick with this Akumu Disease, it's going to be my fault because I'm keeping it alive by being alive myself. That's what Angie told me after she took a look at her father's journal. She was the man you probably heard her talking to over the phone." I was starting to lose my appetite thinking about it, but I knew I needed to eat. I stabbed a piece of scrambled egg and brought it to my mouth.

"I didn't quite catch how you're keeping it alive." The blonde said, intrigued in our conversation. "It's that parasite, right?"

"Yeah." I said after I had swallowed my bite of egg. "But.. There's more.." I stared down at my plate grimly.

"And what's that?" The blonde inquired.

"After Akumu sweeps Angeles Bay, I'm supposed to fall into a coma. For all I know, Akumu could be sweeping Angeles Bay right now. And honestly.." I lowered my voice. "I'm scared.. I don't want to go into a coma. What if I never wake up?" My eyes began to brim with tears.

I didn't look up as Shortstop's chair slid along the floor and footsteps approached me. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see that he was standing to my left.

"I'll stay with you until you fall into your coma."

I gasped softly, my tear brimmed eyes widening. I lifted my head. "You.. You will?"

"I'm not heartless enough to leave a sick and scared girl to her own devices." He bent down to my level, parted my hair and whispered in my ear "I'll be here until the very end."


	7. Chapter 5

_"Mankind's greed has no ending... You continue to consume until even your host is laid waste. Is survival that important? ...So important you would trade it for the earth's destruction?" -Adam_

 _"If people as a whole are consuming too much then maybe that's another disease we need to cure... but we can cure it!" -Derek Stiles_

 _"Even if greed does motivate some men, it can never overshadow the compassion of others!" -Naomi Kimishima_

 _ **MANKIND'S FIFTH GUILT**_

I woke up the next morning much like how I woke up previously. I was lying on top of the bed next to Shortstop. As I sat up, I could see that I was still wearing my lolita ensemble from the day before. Looking around more, I could tell we were no longer in the house that Madevery had put us in. This was a different room entirely.

The bed creaked as I moved, and I glanced over to see that the blonde had opened his eyes.

I smiled in his direction. "Light sleeper?"

"..Yeah." He said, sitting up.

"So, where are we? Do you know?" I asked, looking around.

"We're in my bedroom. Madevery must have brought us home last night."

 _We're in my bedroom._

I froze.

"You're joking, right?" But as I looked at his face, I could tell that Shortstop was not, in fact, joking. And as I glanced around, I realized that it did look like a boy's bedroom. I glanced down at the bed.

"I-I'm sorry!" I said quickly, scrambling off of his neatly made bed.

The blonde scoffed a bit. "It was fine, you don't have to make it weird."

"I-I wasn't!" I insisted, smoothing the skirt of my dress. I thought about how much Leslie would love to see me in this dress, then suddenly perked up. "Oh my gosh! Leslie! She must be wondering where I am!"

Shortstop reached over to the nightstand by his bedside. As he turned to me, I could see that my phone was in his hand.

I nodded a thanks to him and leaned over the bed, taking my cell phone from him.

As I examined my phone in my hands, I could see that I had several missed calls and texts from Leslie, my friends, and my sister.

"What's your address?" I asked Shortstop, turning to him as I opened up a text message to Leslie.

"1400 Sandcastle Circle." He answered, rising from the bed and stretching. "Meet me downstairs and I'll get you something to eat." He grabbed his silver hard hat from the nightstand and exited the bedroom.

"Alright, thank you!" I called after him before redirecting my attention back to my phone and crafting a text to Leslie.

" _ **Hey, Leslie. Sorry if I worried you. I don't know how to explain where I went, but I'm at 1400 Sandcastle Circle now. I love you. Hera."**_

I found my shoes on the floor next to my side of the bed. As I put my shoes on, I felt weird about considering it "my" side of the bed when it wasn't even my bed. I shook my head and headed downstairs after Shortstop.

The house was big and beautifully decorated. Shortstop's bedroom must have been on the third floor, because I had to travel down two flights of stairs to get to the floor with the living room, dining area, and kitchen where I found the blonde.

"Where's your family?" I asked him as I approached the island counter in the kitchen.

The blonde slid his phone out of his back pocket, taking a look at it.

"It's Wednesday." He told me as he put the phone away. "My father's at work and my elder brother is at the high school, assuming he didn't try to skip."

I was curious about his mother, but didn't ask about her. I assumed there must have been a reason why he didn't mention her.

I turned my head to the sound of a key turning in the front door. I stood with bated breath, waiting to see who would walk into the house. Had Shortstop's father or brother come home early? Was it his mother? I was surprised to see that it was actually Sting.

Sting closed the door behind himself, then suddenly gazed up at me and froze. "Woah. I didn't expect to see you here." The raven haired boy had said to me.

"Neither was I." I said, giving him a look before gazing over at the blonde for an explanation on Sting's sudden arrival.

"Sting and Little Monster both have keys to the house." Shortstop said as he pulled some English muffins out of the toaster.

"Dude, did you go missing _again?_ " Sting asked as he walked over to where Shortstop was in the kitchen. "And why's Hera here? You trying to one-up LM?"

Shortstop pointed a clean butterknife at Sting. "You know I prefer boys." He retracted the knife and began to spread butter over the English muffins. "Yes, Madevery took me away again. She brought Hera along this time."

I listened as Shortstop and Sting went back and forth, my earlier suspicions confirmed. This wasn't the first time that Madevery had brought Shortstop to.. Wherever we had been. It did, however, sound like this was the first time that she took someone along with him. I suddenly spoke up.

"Sting, what happened while we were gone?"

Sting turned to look at me. He bit his lip, and then said "The authorities have confirmed that the school was attacked by those Delphi bastards. They're back for another round."

Shortstop groaned irritably, which wasn't _quite_ the response I would have expected for confirmed bioterrorism.

"But that's not all. Caduceus has also reported cases of a _new_ disease showing up alongside GUILT. They're calling it "Akumu". That's all I know." Sting turned to me again. "You work at Caduceus or something, right? Can you find out more?"

My eyes met Shortstop's when Sting mentioned this "new" disease. We quickly broke this connection before he could notice. "I.. My volunteership at Caduceus has been terminated until further notice." I said, lowering my head.

I could tell that Sting felt bad for rubbing salt in fresh wounds without even looking at him.

"Just shut up and eat some breakfast." The blonde said, shoving a box of cereal towards his raven haired friend on his way to the table with the English muffins. He nodded for me to come join him, and I obeyed.

I sat perpendicular to Shortstop at the table, which was just below a window overlooking the front yard. As I sat down next to him, he offered me an English muffin. I accepted it gratefully.

Sting grabbed a ceramic bowl from the cupboard and a jug of milk from the fridge, joining us at the table shortly after grabbing a spoon and the box of cereal. "So. What did you two do at Birchwood?" He asked as he made himself a bowl of cereal right there at the table. Was "Birchwood" the place that Madevery had brought us to?

It must have been, because Shortstop responded with "None of your business." Sting almost choked on his cereal.

"Oh my god." Sting smirked smugly. "Little Monster's going to be so upset that _you_ of all people stole his girlfriend." He threw his head back and laughed.

"I did _not_ steal Hera from Elliot." The blonde insisted sternly, kicking Sting underneath the table.

"Oww!" Sting laughed. "You're so mean!"

"I'm not anyone's girlfriend!" I said quickly. "At least I don't think so." I blushed at the thought, and I felt a fluttering in my chest. Was it true that I was Little Monster's girlfriend? Or were we just friends? Before I could ponder it much more, my cell phone began to vibrate in my hands.

I gave my breakfast host a courteous nod before I picked up the call, holding my phone to my ear. "Hello?"

Leslie's voice filled my ear. "Hera! Sweetie, I've been so worried about you! Where did you go? We were starting to think that maybe you ran away, or worse! That you got kidnapped by Delphi."

"Leslie, I'm fine!" I insisted, smiling on the other end of the phone. "I don't know how to explain to you where I went, but.. Maybe the person that I was with can."

"There's something more, Hera." Leslie said to me, her voice faltering. "I think that you should come by Caduceus. Detective Buckley is here, and he'd like to talk to you."

"A-Alright." I furrowed my brow. "I'll try to be there soon. I love you, Leslie. Bye." As I hung up the phone, I could see that Sting and Shortstop were both staring at me, as if waiting to find out what my phone call entailed.

"I need to get to Caduceus after we finish breakfast." I said to the boys. "That detective wants to talk to me about something."

"We can eat the English muffins on the way. Sting, hurry up with the cereal or we're going to leave you behind."

"Alright, alright!" Sting put his arms up in a surrender. "Just give me like, five minutes."

Five minutes later, we journeyed out of the house and headed to Caduceus together.

"So, what did that detective want to talk to you about, anyways?" Sting asked, his arms behind his head much like what I would expect from Kimmy.

"I don't know." I said as we neared the hospital. "But, with the way Leslie faltered, I'm a little worried."

We entered Caduceus as a group, where the green haired nurse in question was waiting for us in the lobby.

"You brought friends." She smiled sadly. "The detective is waiting for you in conference room B, along with your other friends. You're going to want them around."

"Leslie?" It was clear in my voice that I was fearful. Leslie wasn't acting like herself. "You're coming with us, right?"

"Of course I am." Leslie said without hesitation, leaning down to hug me tight.

My anxiety grew as we approached conference room B, which was on that floor. As Leslie opened the door for me, I could see that Kimmy, Lilac, and Amanda were waiting there with the detective. I shuffled into the room with the boys, Leslie closing the door behind us.

"What's so serious that everyone's gathered here?" I asked Detective Buckley, trying to put on a strong facade that was quickly crumbling away.

"Miss Preston," Detective Buckley began. "When you came to me, you asked for an investigation into the Adrastos family, specifically Anastasia Adrastos. Can you tell us why that was?"

I furrowed my brow. I should be the one asking questions, not him! "Because I believe that Anastasia also has a lung bat that requires medical attention."

"And what lead you to believe that?"

I gave the detective an odd look. "Professor Blackwell's journal flat out stated that Anastasia became a Sinner for an Akumu Core when they implanted her with it."

"Miss Preston, we've reviewed the journal in question, and we've found that what you're saying isn't exactly true."

I was starting to get irritated. "What? But I'm sure it-"

"Nowhere in the journal does it mention multiple Akumu Sinners or multiple Akumu Cores."

My eyes widened a bit. This simple detail that I had overlooked made all of the difference in the world.

"Just.. Just what are you saying?" I demanded to know. But I already knew, and I think everyone else in the room was catching on, too.

"Young lady, there is only _one_ Akumu Sinner, and nine years ago, she was known as Anastasia Adrastos. We're told that nine years ago is when your memories begin."

As I stood there dumbfounded, I felt my balance begin to leave my body.

Shortstop was closest to me, so he's the one that caught me as I stumbled.

"I'm sorry, Anastasia." The detective said to me. Even Kimmy has to understand by now. Everything began to go fuzzy.

All those things that Amanda read from the journal. All those things that happened to Anastasia. All those things happened to _me._

"That's all we wanted to tell you. We believe most of the questions you may have can be answered by Professor Blackwell's journal." Detective Buckley nodded to me, stood up, and took his leave.

Shortstop gazed down at the bundle that was I in his arms before glancing to Leslie. "I'm going to move her somewhere where she can relax."

I had been clinging to his shirt weakly as he carried me out of the conference room and into one of the nearby lounges.

He laid me delicately across one of the couches, then sat on the floor with his back against said couch. Before I could ask anything, he began to to recite something to me.

" _ **If I profane with my unworthiest hand this holy shrine, the gentle sin is this:"**_ He suddenly turned to face me, and grabbed one of my shaking hands.

" _ **My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand to smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss."**_

My rapid heartbeat began to slow down as I listened to him, and I realized that he was reciting Romeo and Juliet to me.

" _ **Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much. Which mannerly devotion shows in this. For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch and palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss."**_

Sting and Kimmy are ushered into the hallway by Amanda and Lilac. They saw us, then headed in our direction.

" _ **Have not saints lips, and holy palmers, too?"**_

Quietly, they circled around us. Kimmy looked confused, Amanda had a romantic look in her eye. They dispersed into the surrounding couches and chairs, listening.

" _ **Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer."**_

I gazed around the lounge at our friends. They all seemed to be listening intently.

" _ **O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do. They pray: Grant thou, lest faith turn to despair."**_

" _ **Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake."**_

" _ **Then move not, while my prayer's effect I take. Thus from my lips, by thine, my sin is purged."**_

Amanda rose to her feet, coming over to where Shortstop and I were before bending down and reciting the next line for him.

" _ **Then have my lips the sin that they have took."**_

Shortstop reached up with his free hand, cupping Amanda's chin.

" _ **Sin from thy lips? O trespass sweetly urged! Give me my sin again."**_

Shortstop's hand dropped from Amanda's chin, and I could tell that the recitation was over.

"Hera, how do you feel?" Amanda asked me.

"Don't you mean Anastasia?" My attention momentarily went over to Sting before I heard one of the chairs rock from Kimmy's side of the lounge.

There was Kimmy, standing menacingly with her fists at her sides. "We are _not_ gonna start calling Hera by some dumb princess name now. Her name is Hera-" Kimmy brought one of her fists to her chest, splaying the other hand out in Lilac's face. "End of story!"

Sting shrunk back in his chair, eyes wide. "I didn't think you'd be so passionate about this, Kimmy."

"Of course I'm passionate about my friends!" Kimmy went over to Sting, looming over him. "I'd be the same way if someone said that your name isn't Sting, or that Shortstop's name isn't Shortstop!"

..

"Uh, Kimmy. My name isn't Shortstop." The blonde began. "It's just a nickname that Sting gave me."

"Whaaat?" Kimmy stared at the blonde, dumbfounded. "You mean your mom didn't _name_ you Shortstop?"

"No, Kimmy.."

I lifted my hand to my mouth, giggling a bit. I could always count on my friends to make me feel better, especially Kimmy.

"Oh, hey! That reminds me." Kimmy suddenly perked up. "Lilac, do you still have that piece of paper that I asked you to hold onto? Can I have it?"

"Yeah, I still have it." Lilac rose to her feet and came closer to KImmy, reaching into her apron pocket. She handed Kimmy a small, folded up piece of paper.

I raised an eyebrow. "Kimmy, that's not like you to carry a piece of paper around. Is there a drawing on it or something?"

"Nah, some guy gave this piece of paper to me a few days ago and asked me to read it once all of us were together." Kimmy unfolded the piece of paper and held it in front of herself with two hands, smiling big.

" 'Sathanas - Wrath. Small demons grow into the devil ' ." Kimmy's face fell. "I don't get it."

As soon as Kimmy read "Sathanas" off of that piece of paper, a throbbing pain shot through my head. I groaned, wincing.

"Hera, what's wrong?" Amanda asked, leaning over me.

"That word.. I've heard it before.." I opened my eyes to their fullest. I suddenly felt a frantic fluttering in my chest. The bat, no, the _Akumu Core,_ she was frantic. She was trying to tell me something.

I turned my head to the sound of footsteps coming our way. The first thing that I saw was a palatinate blue dress.

"What are all you doing out here?" Angie asked us. As she spoke, I notice that she was holding something under her arm. It looked like her father's journal.

"Hey, Angie! You're smart!" Kimmy began, holding the piece of paper with the strange text up to the nurse. "What's this mean?"

Angie took a moment to scan the text, silently mouthing the words as she read. As she finished, her olive eyes widened.

"Where did you find this?!" Angie demanded, a startled look in her eyes.

Kimmy lowered the paper, confused by Angie's outburst. "Some guy outside of Caduceus gave it to me a few days ago. Why, what's it mean?"

"This is Delphi's style of writing!" Angie proclaimed, suddenly gripping the journal in both hands. "And if Sathanas is what I think it is.." She cracked open the journal and began to rapidly flip through the pages.

"Wait! This is from those Dolphin guys?!" Kimmy cried out. The situation was too serious for anyone to correct her.

"I had a bad feeling about this.." Angie said as she closed the journal. "Sathanas is a strain of Akumu."

"Aww, man!" Kimmy held her head in her hands. "I totally thought that piece of paper was a voucher for a free surgery or something!"

"K-Kimmy, you didn't actually think that, did you?" I asked. Of course she did. This is Kimmy Circuit we're talking about.

"Thank you for sharing this with me. I'm going to tell the director right away." Angie took the piece of paper from Kimmy and hurried off.

"But who's the person who will become infected with Sathanas first?" Amanda wrung her hands together.

"I have a really bad feeling about this.." Shortstop closed his eyes for a moment. "Sting, when was the last time you spoke to Little Monster?" The blonde turned to his raven haired friend.

"A few days ago, why?" Sting responded. "Wait.. You don't think the "small demons" in that note was referring to.."

I immediately got out my phone and dialed for the brunette, just to put everyone's minds at ease. The phone rang for a bit, and when it was finally picked up, I heard a young girl's voice on the other end.

"Hello? Emily van Wieran speaking."

"Emily? You're Little Monster's sister? Uh, I mean, Elliot's sister? My name is Hera Preston. I..I went on a date with your brother a few days ago. Where is he right now? My friend says they haven't heard from him in a few days."

"You mean he isn't with you guys?" Emily sounded worried. "He hasn't been home in awhile, we just thought he was staying with Sting or Jacques."

"No, he's not with us. I just thought he was busy at home or something.." I answered.

"I.. I have to go. Thank you for calling." Emily then suddenly hung up.

I slowly lowered the phone. "His sister. She doesn't know where he is. She thought he was with us."

"So, what? He's missing?" Sting shrugged like he wasn't convinced.

"This doesn't bode well with that note Kimmy received.." Shortstop pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Well I think we should go out looking for him!" Kimmy pumped her fist into the air.

"Kimmy, we don't even know where to start looking for him." I pointed out. "Besides, don't you think we should file a missing person's report?"

"No way, we don't want to disturb the police with this!" Kimmy said, and I was impressed that she used a word as big as "disturb". "Besides, they don't know him as well as we do! We have a better chance of finding him!"

"Kimmy, this is crazy." I said, turning away from her on the couch. "I mean, where are we even supposed to start looking? I don't think that-" As I turned back towards Kimmy, I realized that she wasn't there. "..Kimmy!"

"She's gone, Hera." Lilac sighed. "She's gone."

"I guess there's nothing we can do but wait for her to give up." I said. But deep down, I knew that Kimmy wasn't going to give up, because Little Monster was a friend.

"Amanda and I should probably go see what work Leslie has for us." Lilac shot an uncomfortable look in my direction since I wasn't a candy striper anymore.

"Alright, I'll see you guys later." I said, my voice drooping a bit from the fact that I wouldn't be joining them. The girls lingered for a moment awkwardly before they vacated the lounge.

The raven and the blonde turned to me. "So, what are we supposed to do now?" Sting asked, putting his arms behind his head.

"You're both welcome to come back to my house and stay there until your parents want you back." Shortstop offered, eyeing me specifically. "Does that work with both of you?"

I smiled sheepishly, glad that the boys were including me in something since I couldn't be doing volunteer work with the girls.

"Yeah, that's fine with me." I grinned. "Thank you for the invitation."

That was how I ended up back at Sandcastle Circle while I waited for Leslie to get off of work.

As soon as we walked in the front door, we were greeted by a silver, long haired cat at our feet.

"Meeow."

"Hello, Reeba." The blonde bent down and picked the cat up, holding her to his chest. "Did you get fed enough while I was gone?"

I giggled. "I didn't think you were a cat person."

"He hates dogs. Poor Typhon gets no love!" Sting pushed past us and began to call out for the rottweiler.

Shortstop rolled his eyes. "I don't _hate dogs._ I just prefer cats."

"Meeeow." Reeba responded.

"Psssh.. What are cats even good for?" Sting laid out on one of the couches. "You can actually do stuff with dogs."

"Reeba's there when I'm not feeling well. Typhon just excitedly pounces on me and makes it worse." The blonde stated as he set the cat back down on the floor.

"Maybe you deserve to have it made worse." Sting grinned, watching as I suddenly came over to him and grabbed him by his shoes. "Hey, what gives?!"

"What's with you boys and putting your shoes on the furniture?" I scolded, pulling his shoes off and taking them over to the front door where they belonged.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Sting leaned back, watching as I did the work for him.

I scoffed and went over towards Shortstop, and as I did, I heard Sting speak up.

"Hey, you guys.."

"NO, we're not going to rub your feet for you." I crossed my arms, my back to the boy.

"No, it's about Kimmy." With that, I turned around to face Sting.

"She sent me a text." Sting held up his phone, though I couldn't read what it said from where I was.

"What's it say?" I asked, coming over along with the blonde.

Sting retracted his phone and held it up to his ear as it began to vibrate in his hand. "Hello?" He asked, rather confused. He yanked the phone away from his ear, and even I could hear Kimmy yelling on the other end.

"Kimmy, Kimmy, calm down! I can't understand what you're saying." Sting clicked a button on the screen, putting the call on speaker.

"-ound this tunnel that smells a lot like Little Monster!" Kimmy squealed excitedly.

" _Smells_ like him? How do you know what he smells like?" Sting inquired.

"Huh? You mean you guys can't smell it? He smells like some sort of coconut candy bar. You smell like burning rubber, Hera smells like rose water, Shortstop smells like blue hand saniti-"

"Hold on, what do you mean I smell like burning rubber?!" Sting shouted in agitation, then sighed. "Kimmy, just tell us where you are!"

"I'm at that place in the woods where we went paintballing! You guys are gonna come check out the tunnel with me, right?" Kimmy asked.

"I mean, I guess?" Sting asked, looking at us to see what we thought. "I still don't understand how you know what everyone smells like, but okay. I guess we'll be there." Sting probably thought we'd just be humoring Kimmy, but I knew better. Kimmy Circuit had the sharpest sense of smell out of anyone I'd ever known.

When we met with Kimmy, she was standing in a creek in front of a grated drainage tunnel. "You guys made it!" She cheered, throwing her hands into the air. "His scent goes into the tunnel." Kimmy smiled at us, putting her hands on the grate.

A shiver went down my spine. This was a _drainage tunnel._ That _water_ travels through.

"There's a grate on it." Sting said, coming over to Kimmy and pulling on the grate. "I don't think we're getting in there, Kimmy."

"Sure we are!" Just when I thought we weren't going to have to go in the tunnel, Kimmy pulled on the grate and rolled it out of the way.

"..I guess we are going in." Shortstop said, stepping forward to inspect the drainage tunnel.

"I-It looks like it's dark in there, and we don't have any flashlights!" I said quickly, trying to make an excuse to not go in there.

The blonde gave me an odd look. "We have our phone flashlights."

"R-Right." I looked down at the grass.

"Hera? You don't need to be scared!" Kimmy grinned, running up to me. She grabbed my hands and forced me to look at her. "You have us with you."

I looked away, smiling a little bit. "Yeah, okay."

I lingered in the back in between the boys as we traveled the drainage tunnel. Kimmy and her sense of smell were in the lead.

We had been walking in a straight line for maybe ten minutes when we were suddenly presented with a choice: Continue straight or take a right down a path that looked like it had been dug out of the side of the original tunnel.

"His scent goes this way." Kimmy announced, leading us down the makeshift tunnel.

As we proceeded down it, the air seemed to change. It was heavier somehow. It became harder to breathe. For me, at least.

I squeaked as my face suddenly collided with Kimmy's back. "KImmy, why did you stop?" I asked, concerned.

Kimmy took a few steps back towards me, her hands over her nose. "I still smell him, but.. It smells awful this way! Like sickness."

"Sickness?" I asked, concerned. "You don't think he's already sick, do you?"

"I don't know." Kimmy groaned. "It's like, a whole bunch of different sicknesses."

My heart sank and the bat began to flutter in my chest. "You don't think.. That he's with Delphi?"

Kimmy suddenly furrowed her brow and ran forward. "Only one way to find out!"

"Kimmy, wait!" Sting cried out, running after her.

Shortstop turned to me in the near-darkness. "Shall we?"

I nodded, humming a bit, and we followed Kimmy and Sting into the darkness.

"I see light up ahead!" Kimmy called out, her voice muffled. She was right. There was light at the end of the tunnel. I heard heels clacking on the uneven floor as Kimmy ran on ahead.

I was hoping that when we reached the other side, we would be outside again. As I exited the tunnel with Shortstop. I realized that this wasn't the case. Yes, there was light at the end of the tunnel that seemed bright from a distance, but upon exiting said tunnel, I was disappointed to discover that we were in a dimly lit building of sorts.

The building did not smell good. It smelled like chemicals, even I could smell a bit of the sickness that Kimmy mentioned. She maintained the position of her hands over her nose, and even looked a little unwell.

"God, it smells awful in here!" Kimmy gagged. "My nose is getting overwhelmed!"

"Can you still smell Little Monster?" I asked, concerned.

"I don't know! I'm getting mixed signals!"

"But he's here though, right?" I squeaked.

"I don't see where else he could be." The blonde said. "My understanding is that the trail ends here."

"I guess we just start looking around then." I said, gazing around the inside of the building. "This is such a strange place. It looks like some kind of power plant."

I turned my head to the sound of footsteps and saw Sting walking towards a corridor to the right. I gazed at Shortstop and Kimmy before running after the raven haired boy.

"Sting, where are you going?" I asked as I ran up next to him.

"Exploring, looking for my friend." He said casually, shrugging.

"Alright, I guess we're following you, then." I said as Kimmy and Shortstop fell in behind us.

"Do you think there's anyone else here?" Kimmy asked, albeit muffled by her hands over her nose.

Almost immediately after she asked, there was the sound of footsteps and approaching voices. Sting froze.

"Shit! What do we do? Do we hide or-?!"

We had no time to react before two men wearing orange and black get-ups rounded the corner. There was something familiar about their outfits, but at the time, I did not know what it was. One of the men stopped dead, the other one stopping shortly after he followed his companion's gaze.

The two of them exchanged a look, then tried to look tough and size-up Sting and Shortstop. "Look, you kids shouldn't be here." The first one said.

"You shouldn't have an entrance to your organization connected to a drainage tunnel like it is." Shortstop responded, unintimidated.

The men stopped and gazed at each other, then one of them noticed me while the other mumbled "He got us there."

The first one pulled a walkie-talkie out of his pocket. "We got a Code Juno." He pushed down the talk button and spoke into the device. "I repeat, we got a Code Juno in the southwest wing."

"Code Juno.." The blonde repeated, bewildered. My own eyes widened when I suddenly realized what their code meant.

Kimmy removed her hands from her nose and sniffed the air to the best of her ability, suddenly going rigid. "They smell like those guys we fought when paintballing!"

Sting staggered back. "You're joking!" Rapid footsteps could be heard coming down the corridor from behind the two men.

"The pigtailed one is the most dangerous! Subdue her and capture Juno!" One of the men cried out as armored people with large guns ran up behind them.

"Shit, they have more firepower than us." The blonde grimaced.

We backed together into a tightly knit group as we were surrounded by people that I suspected were members of Delphi, which meant..

Kimmy had inadvertently lead us right into their base, or at least _one_ of their bases.

Now, this could be both a good thing and a bad thing. On one hand, we knew their location and could report them to the authorities.

On the other hand, we might not make it out alive.

"So.. What do we do?" Sting asked as the people began to close in on us.

Shortstop gritted his teeth. "Either surrender or try to fight. But I think surrendering might be the best option, since it looks like those guns are-"

"Are you kidding me? We're gonna fight!" Kimmy cried out, rushing towards the front line of people holding guns.

"Kimmy!" I shrieked, for fear that she'd be shot at. I had no idea how Kimmy would fare against a gun.

"She's making a move! Fire!" One of the armored individuals shouted, and I squeezed my eyes shut as I heard something splice the air. I didn't want to see Kimmy get shot.

"Hey, what gives?!" Kimmy cried out, and I knew that she was okay. If she had a gunshot wound, I would have expected a different reaction. I opened my eyes to see a hypodermic needle sticking out of Kimmy's right shoulder.

"There aren't bullets in those guns, there's tranqs!" Sting called out moments before a tranquilizer pierced his neck. "W-What the.." His crimson eyes gazed widely at the hypodermic needle, and he began to stagger. "Y-You're kidding me.." In a matter of seconds, he went down.

"STING!" Kimmy roared, seething. "You bastards!" She drew her fist back for a punch, running at the armored people despite having been hit with a tranquilizer.

"It didn't work, hit her again!" Someone commanded as Kimmy uppercutted the jaw of an armored man.

Moments after she made her hit, Kimmy was hit with hypodermic needles all over her body. In her legs, in her neck, in her arms. Finally, she got a strong enough dose that even she began to go down.

Kimmy fell to her knees, grunting. "You're the bastards.. That hurt my friends.. And want Hera! I can smell it on you!"

She fell forward, placing some of her weight onto her hands. "I'm not.. Gonna let you bastards take her!"

"Sedate the other two and capture them! Keep Juno alive!" One of the two men we first encountered cried out.

"NO!" Kimmy roared, struggling to drag herself forward as Shortstop and I were hit with needles from the tranquilizer guns.

I felt woozy, much like how I felt when Detective Buckley had broke the news to me that _I_ was Anastasia Adrastos.

I was unconscious before I even hit the ground.

It was my discomfort that caused me to stir later. It was so warm, I expected to wake up in Hawaii again. I moved to reach my hand up to my face, but failed. I immediately opened my eyes and turned to my right, seeing that my wrist was cuffed to the surface that I was leaning against. I checked my left wrist. It was also cuffed.

I gazed up, squinting as a bright light penetrated my vision. It was warm, very warm. By the smell of things, I was still in the building I had entered through the drainage tunnel.

I was restrained and rather hot. I began to panic internally, making my temperature rise.

"I'm surprised. You usually complain about being cold." Came a voice. The bat began to flutter in my chest.

Those words were the very same words _she_ had said to me when I woke up nine years ago. That voice.. It almost sounded like hers, too.

I must be imagining things.

I turned my head to the left, following the sound of heels clacking in the darkness, getting closer. This figure that was approaching me was dressed almost entirely in black. As they approached the outskirts of the light beaming down on me, one thing, no, two things, popped out to me in a painfully agonizing way.

The eyes.

They looked just like _her_ eyes. Somewhere between yellow and gold, an amber sort of color. They _were_ her eyes.

My own eyes widened in horror. My mouth gaped with pathetic squeaks coming out, but no coherent sounds. I felt sick to my stomach. I clenched my hands into fists and tried to kick my legs, only to realize that they were cuffed, too.

"St-stay away from me!" I cried out, my mouth going dry.

This person that was coming towards me.. Their figure, their face, their _eyes._ Everything but the way they wore their hair and facial expression was identical to my mother.


End file.
